


Asgard's Changeling

by Dia



Series: The Many Deaths of Loki Laufeyson [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, BAMF Jasper Sitwell, Canon Compliant, Fix-It, Gen, Hydra (Marvel), Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, Odin's A+ Parenting, Seattle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 40,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3220577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dia/pseuds/Dia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki spoke.  “I do not know what magic this may be.  I cannot with all my art pierce the illusion that has been cast.  I do not understand how this world seems to have slipped its allotted sphere.   But I can tell you this:  there is no version of any reality where you cannot trust Thor.”</p><p>Fury seemed to take this in stride.  “Hill, you told me there was a video.  Why don’t you show it to us all?”</p><p>Maria bit her lip, took a deep breathe, and then said, “All right, Thor can stay, but I’d first like him to swear to us that he will not tell Odin or Asgard about anything he sees here...."</p><p>Takes place after Thor the Dark World but before Age of Ultron. Completely MCU-canon compliant through Age of Ultron (except that in this tale the mortals find out who's after the Infinity Gems). Really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Niobium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niobium/gifts).



> This is a gift to Niobium, whose wonderful tale, "Jane Foster and the Impossible Library" is as fine a surrealist story as anything I've ever read.
> 
> Semi-retconned with Age of Ultron (there's no way to reconcile this tale with Thor's suspicion that someone unknown is after the Infinity Gems, but otherwise it meshes) and to be continued post-Ultron. I'm aiming to keep the series canon-compliant with the MCU at least until the Captain America Civil War comes out.

_“I have not come all this way for safety, doctor.” – Captain America: The First Avenger_

 

 When the call came in, it came to Bruce Banner of all people. Therefore it fell to him to explain to Tony why the video had not already been shown to SHIELD, the Avengers, or anyone else.

“That’s why this thing took a year to surface?” Tony was skeptical. “Why not give it up right after our little war?”

“Because the kids wanted to keep the flier. They didn’t show anyone the video because they had the actual thing itself. SHIELD was confiscating everything and they wanted to take it apart. By themselves. First. They’re graduate students at Columbia, Tony, no-one gets this better than you. ”

“And these kids tell you that they saw the Triskelion blow up on TV before they ever even looked at this vid?”

“No, the kids saw it just fine. It’s just that they didn’t realize who the alien was until after Hydra was in the news. And the Dean only called me after someone dropped it off with the SETI study group.”

“Bullshit.” Tony took the flashdrive, hefted it, read the label (which had nothing on it but the manufacturer, for it was a perfectly normal flashdrive purchased from Tekserve on 23rd street once upon a time) and looked up at Bruce. “They just didn’t want to share. Or, who knows, some of them already knew SHIELD was Hydra, kids are smart these days. The vid shows this human guy getting off this Chitauri thing? Have I got that right?”

“Yes. I’m guessing our rider figured that a Chitauri running away from the fight might attract attention. So he ditched his transport.”

“The only thing he left behind was the flier?”

“Yes. More importantly, he took something with him. Before we saw the tape, we thought he’d stolen the machine that Columbia been storing there.”

“And now you think he didn’t?”

“He left with it, sure. He just didn’t steal it; it walked out with him.”

“Really?” Tony was incredulous.

“Yes, really,” replied Bruce. “We hadn’t been able to figure it out…”

“What is this lab, anyway?”

“Originally it was part of the Manhattan Project,” answered Bruce, “which was, you know, in Manhattan, until they realized they had to explode a bomb. After the war Columbia dedicated the lab to the study of Hydra equipment. SHIELD stored decommissioned Hydra machines there and turned them over to Columbia for academic study. And then, well, things being what they were, they just never got studied.”

“Should’ve donated it to City College.” Noticing Bruce’s blank look, Tony relented and said, “Private joke between Dummy and me. So this thing was still a live walking talking robot, even though our Hydra buddies at SHIELD made sure nobody started it up. And this rogue Chitauri is a new kind of alien? Wearing human clothes?”

Bruce stayed silent. Tony trotted over to a wall that scrolled open before him to reveal a large dark screen. He snapped in the flashdrive and the image of a vast crowded machine-filled space flashed into focus.

“Perhaps -- the head was strange, although the body looks human enough,” said Bruce. “But I’ve already heard of the name this creature used for the robot, although I associated it more with the news accounts of Alexander Pierce that this alien creature. He called it Armin Zola, and his own face and head look like a red skull.”

 

 

 


	2. Remembrance

“Aren’t you worried about Hydra?”

“Should I be? All they do is spent their time chasing bits of alien tech so they can destroy them.”

“That’s SHIELD, that’s not Hydra. Look, think about it, if they’re after alien tech you’re the one who’s building a fucking wormhole to the magic place with more magic alien tech than anyone could know what to do with. Jane, sooner or later someone’s going to figure out that it might be easier just to get beamed up to the source than to have gun fights with SHIELD over the leftovers all the time.”

“Who told you to start worrying about this? Stark Industries doesn’t want anything to happen to their investment, is that where this is coming from?”

“Well, until Stark started footing our bills, remember I wasn’t getting paid. At all.” Darcy took another sip of Jane’s coffee, appreciating it. Ever since Thor had come back Jane had become an expert in coffee. “Look at it from the point of view of the bad guys. Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun to rummage through Asgard’s weapons vault than some random WWII SHIELD warehouse that has who knows what junk in it? And the one person they are sure knows how to operate the transporter is you. Because you’re fucking building it.”

“Thor will protect me.” Jane looked down as she stirred her coffee. She’s too depressed even to argue, thought Darcy. This is bad.

“Where is Thor, anyway?” Darcy asked.

“I think he’s off … helping the Avengers hunt down Hydra cells. Or fixing the drought in Latin America somewhere.” It occurred to Darcy that she had never seen her friend look so lost, not even when she was sitting around in her pajamas, eating ice cream and refusing to shower.

“No more flying off to debriefings in D.C. then.”

“I should hope not. Although it was kind of a shame, because I think Thor was becoming friends with that guy Sitwell. Not that he ever told Sitwell anything, you know, that …people shouldn’t know,” Jane added hastily.

“No harm in that. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer is, after all, the Asgardian way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know, the reason Odin raised Loki. I mean, the only way Odin was able to bring him up to kill his own father was because he had like, no rights whatsoever as a frost giant, Asgardians can do whatever they want with anything that is a frost giant, so Odin could do whatever he wanted with the kid. And the only way Odin could be really sure that Loki would be programmed to kill Laufey is to raise the kid in his own household….”

“Darcy.”

“Come on, that’s what was really happening, don’t you think?”

“I can’t believe that.”

“Yeah, well, you met Odin, right?”

“Darcy. He isn’t the.... that bad.”

“He sicced the Asgardian army on you and Thor, remember? His own kid’s death by friendly fire would be, like, the most productive way to defend Asgard that I can think of.”

“We got away, though,” Jane pointed out. “And look how nice he was when he let Thor resign the throne and go to earth. He was proud of his son, just knew it couldn’t be public.” She took another sip of her coffee. “I think Odin cared for both of his sons equally.”

“You sure? You ever discuss Loki with Thor? Like, at all?”

Jane hesitated, looked down again, and then shook her head. _You’re a terrible liar_ , thought Darcy. “Look, I can get that Thor’s unhappy. He lost, like, half his family in the space of a few days. You can’t expect him to just get over it like that.” Darcy snapped her fingers. “Fighting Malekith was cool and all but the adrenaline’s going wear off at some point. Like, especially, after more than a year.”

This made Jane smile a bit. “He seems to be OK about Frigga. He mourns her, I mourn her – even though I didn’t even know her, hardly – and he has never by word or deed said anything to make me feel guilty. I feel guilty – she died defending me…”

“But she had the gift of prophecy, didn’t Thor say that? She knew what was going to happen. And she had a kick-ass funeral and all.” Darcy remembered the difference between Frigga’s solemn memorial and the boisterous feast that marked Asgard’s commemoration of Loki, and she was more sure than ever that Odin had raised the son only to exact vengeance against the father. “Loki also died defending you, for what it’s worth.”

“Yes, but that’s different, somehow.”

“Well, it was Thor’s plan that got him killed. So Thor feels guilty. But not guilty enough for one of those Asgardian funerals. Do you think there’s anything we can do about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, have a memorial service here on Earth?”

“Thor spoke about Frigga during the service for the victims of Malekith. Malekith’s little stunt didn’t kill anywhere near the number of people that Loki’s did, but there was still that poor kid who bled out from the shattered glass and the tourists who wound up under a car.” Jane paused. “To be completely honest, Thor’s not quite sure who threw the car.”

“I meant for Loki.”

“Darcy, you’ve got to be kidding. Loki killed people. Who’d go, besides you, me and Thor? What, are we going to invite the SHIELD guys who took my stuff? I mean, to the extent they’re still alive and we can find them? Erik? That archer guy and his creepy girlfriend, after what Loki did to them both? The billionaire Loki threw out of his own window?”

“It doesn’t have to be a proper memorial, you know. We could do, oh, I don’t know, a forty-nine day Tibetan book of the dead Bardo ceremony, or something.”

“Darcy, _please_. Everyone who remembers him hates him, except for us and Thor.”

“You mean hated him. He’d dead, it’s OK to use the past tense.”

“It doesn’t feel that way.”

“Maybe we can give Thor some SSRIs.”

“Darcy, he’s an alien, we can’t give him human drugs. Also people shouldn’t get antidepressants prescribed for grief. Grief isn’t an illness.”

“I’ll ask Erik about the drugs. He should know about drugs – he was on enough. And he shared his brain with Loki, he’ll know if aliens can handle drugs.” She paused, sipping her coffee. Damn, but Jane made good coffee. “Although maybe I should ask Clint -- he was way more likely to think about taking drugs while Loki was in his head. Where is Clint, by the way?”

“No, Darcy, just no. Please.”

Darcy made a mental note to email Erik Selvig as soon as she was back on her computer and took another sip of Jane’s excellent coffee. Also Natasha. Natasha would know where Clint was.

“So no memorial or anything, and you’ve nixed the drugs, and I know therapy for an alien sounds freaky weird, but have you ever suggested therapy to Thor?”

“DARCY.”

“Yeah, that’s my name, I think we both know it.”

“Look, I’m sorry, it’s just….”

Darcy decided to just take the plunge. “Jane? Is everything OK between the two of you?”

“Is there a point to all this?” demanded Jane.

“You’re both my friends, but I happen to notice that lately things seem to be really sucky, OK? I mean, suckier than this.” Darcy remembered the breakfasts she’d shared in Puente Antiguo, that cheap Spanish coffee too fine for the coffee maker and Jane’s bad driving and SHIELD taking all of their stuff (and her ipod!), and everything had still been a lot better than now. Jane's mood in New Mexico had never been so grim. “I know Thor likes to do the disappearing act at the best of times. And it is totally not creepy stalker weird that he likes watching you without telling you, for, like, years at a time.”

“Darcy, if you are saying this to help, I would like to thank you for trying. But you are in fact not helping.”

“Jane, this is the kind of guy who out of all his friends picked Sif who had a crush on him to be the one to get you when you were on Asgard. He loves you, sure, but he was either rubbing Sif’s face in it or it just didn’t occur to him. Either way not prince charming behavior. If he’s starting to do his disappearing thing again we’ll all get it and I can promise we’ll all support you.”

Jane abruptly stood up. “Time to get to work, OK?”

“O.K., O.K., here’s the point. I’m sure Thor wants to protect you, OK? Even if you two are fighting. But, look, if you two are fighting he might want to but he might not, you know, show up in time. Or something.”

For a long moment Jane just stared at her, and Darcy could only hope she’d gotten her point across.

“Get the phasemeter,” Jane said, “we’ve got work to do.”

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Reaction

Silence reigned in the gleaming luxurious screening room of Stark tower. Tony looked at Bruce, and Bruce looked at Tony.

“Is this thing for real?” demanded Tony.

“I think so,” replied Bruce. “But if Red Skull is right, then how are we ever going to figure it out?”

“Doesn’t matter. Thanos may not be our problem, but the Red Skull definitely is. Even if Big Red is right, and Loki is playing some kind of long game against this Thanos, we’ve got a problem right here on earth.” Then Tony sat up and calling up a glowing computer screen pulled up images from World War II. “We've got work to do. Here’s Red Skull,” said Tony, tapping an image floating on the open air. “Johann Schmidt, former hotel bellhop and special protégé of Hitler.”

“Bellhop?” asked Bruce.

“Hitler was staying in this hotel when he lost his temper at someone in his staff and swore he could make the hotel’s bellhop into a better National Socialist,” said Tony, reading the floating text. “The bellhop was a teenage Schmidt, formerly homeless orphan on his first legit job. Looks like Hitler succeeded and then some. Cap will know.”

“We should get Cap, right? Cap will know more about this Johann Schmidt than anyone else, I should think. Where is Cap, do we know?”

“JARVIS will know. JARVIS?”

“Current whereabouts are unknown, sir, although the most recent data suggest that he is already in the New York area. I should be able to locate him under an hour.”

“Coulson will know,” said Bruce, and pulled out his phone. “I think I have his number….”

“JARVIS, get Hill up here on the double,” and, when Bruce looked at him, perplexed, Tony added, “She’s in the building. She’s on payroll.”

“Hey, did you hire Natasha again?”

“God no. I’m not hiring anyone else who’s ex-SHIELD, not even if they’re an Avenger.…,” and then Tony and Bruce looked at each other again.

Both spoke at the same time.

“Oh my god _Thor_.”


	4. Repentence

Thor has nothing to hit and nothing to do.

Strictly speaking Thor has everything he ever asked for, which, he now discovers, is not really what he wanted. He has his powers: he can summon the wind and the rain and the thunder, and channel lightening from the heavens; he finds a hero’s welcome everywhere on earth, even as he finds the mortals’ obsequious desire to please less pleasant than their straightforward worship of yesteryear. Were he to return to Asgard (which he does not do), he knows he would be greeted with respect from Heimdall, with silent pride from his father, with heartfelt acclaim from all the Aesir. And here on Midgard, he knows he is blessed with as much love, devotion, and honor as the mortals he cherishes can bestow.

And it’s not that he has nothing to do, exactly. Now that word has spread that Thor is back, and living on earth after saving it from Malekith, everyone wants a piece of him, even though the other Avengers (especially the metal man, who stays friendly although Thor has politely and firmly turned down all requests to submit his hammer for scientific testing) and Jane and her companions all tell him that he doesn’t have to talk to the public if he doesn’t want to.

And this welcome includes, oddly enough, as much fighting as he could want. Every military in the world, and a few groups that seem not be anyone’s army but apparently like to run around armed to the teeth, are willing to test their might against his. And of course his fellow Avengers are always up for a sparring match, except for the only one who might win, the quiet scientist who turns green, and Thor understands this reticence has nothing to do with him.

It’s not that he has nothing more useful to do than practice fighting, either. He is the god of thunder and the storm-bringer, and on this drought-stricken fevered planet that turns out to be a most needed skill. He can not alter the increasing amount of free carbon that the mortals insist on spewing into their atmosphere, but he can summon the rain clouds, and in his days of loss and grief he finds some small solace in bringing thunder to California and rain to Africa. He even tried working with NORAD and NOAA to see if the power of Mjolnir may be used to dissipate hurricanes or tornados before the full force of their fury strikes but so far his hammer has only been able to exacerbate the storm, not weaken it.

And it’s not that he has not found in these mortals the camaderie that he sought, a companionship warmer than the barbed friendship of the Warriors Three, the fixed alliances and the ancient hatreds of Asgard. The mortals show every sign that they love him for his own merits and not because he was born their prince.   Jane in particular appeared overwhelmed with joy to have him back, lighting up with love whenever he landed upon her mother’s terrace. Selvig’s quiet companionship was another solace and in Darcy’s exuberant friendship he could detect no trace of restraint or jealousy.   At the Avenger’s tower in New York he was always greeted with delight, and at the Triskelion in D.C. with solemn welcome and the attention of the highest officials at SHIELD. 

It’s just that Thor was raised for a purpose, and this is not it. He was raised to defend the nine realms, and now he stands ready, bright in armor and steadfast in strength, but all too often now he has nothing to hit and nothing to do. And though the magic density of Mjolnir in his hand is as light as a feather, increasingly there gnaws at him the suspicion that in fact somehow he has missed something – he has no idea what – that he should have done.

He cannot explain this, even to himself. And because he cannot tell himself what is wrong, he cannot begin to try to explain it to anyone else. Always he has thought that he had need of his courage only to smite evil, and that the hammer in his hand was his insofar as he could put it to the test of the rightful strength of his arm. Apart from that hateful day in the desert, Mjolnir has rebounded joyously to his grasp every time he reached for its familiar and beloved weight. He cannot tell where his courage has ever yet failed him in combat, or his spirit for the trial.

And still he has nothing to do and nothing to hit.

After the fury of the war with the Dark Elves faded, in the first blackness of his grief, he knew his only task was endurance. SHIELD and his fellow Avengers left him alone with Jane, and Jane comforted him as best she could.

But grief fades, even a grief as great as his, and still he was Thor, the protector of mankind and the nine realms. Therefore he offered the power of his arm to SHIELD.

They had no great need of it, they told him, but if he felt as if he could help he was more than welcome to come in for a debriefing.  

And so one day, after he landed before the great glass lobby of the huge SHIELD building in Washington and caught the admiring glances of all of SHIELD’s busy employees, Fury introduced him to Agent Sitwell. Thor remembered seeing him before, and said so. Jasper, however, while welcoming, appeared diffident upon being reminded of their prior acquaintance, until finally Thor realized that Jasper was too embarrassed to mention that Jasper had been one of the SHIELD agents in New Mexico.

But not knowing what to say to put the mortal at ease, he said nothing, and merely followed the SHIELD agent into a video room somewhere in the depths of the Triskelion.

There at first all was easy; Thor was delighted to talk about Asgard, its history, its kings, its golden defenses, and the carefree days of his youth and childhood. All went swimmingly until they asked him to tell the story of his brother. And although he told them all he knew about Loki’s role in formenting and winning Asgard’s second war with Jotunheim, he found he could not convey the truth of the matter to Jasper.

For Agent Sitwell was horrified to learn that Loki had killed his own father to please Odin, and nothing Thor could say could persuade Sitwell that this was entirely Loki’s own doing.

“Thor, listen to yourself,” Jasper pleaded with him. “Odin had nothing to do with Laufey’s death? Come on. Laufey was Odin’s ancient enemy.”

“My father was in the Odinsleep,” insisted Thor. “He could hear and see what transpired, but until he was roused from the Odinsleep he could do nothing.”

“There were no rumors, no whispers in Asgard that Loki was Jotun?” the SHIELD agent asked. “Nothing?”

“I refused to listen to such tales of disrepute.”

“That Loki was Laufey’s son.”

“No,” responded Thor, ever more unwillingly, “That Loki was Odin’s Jotun bastard. Were it not for the happenstance that Loki was born immediately following the last great war with Jotunheim there would have been no rumors. As it was we did not tolerate them.”

Sitwell scribbled in his notebook, which struck Thor as unnecessary since, judging from the amount of video machines focused on them, SHIELD was recording them both with all the equipment at their disposal. “Any other Jotuns in Asgard?”

“Not that we were ever aware,” replied Thor.

“There could have been Jotuns you weren’t aware of?”

“They are famous for the fact that the most talented of their sorcerers are perfect shape-shifters,” replied Thor, “and shape-shifters are universally distrusted across the nine realms. The Jotuns more than most, however, given their malevolence and destructiveness.”

“Thor, listen to yourself,” pleaded Jasper, scribbling away. “If Odin had a truce with Laufey, why wasn’t Odin willing to help Jotunheim if they actually needed their casket to keep the place going?”

“Asgard enforces the peace only between the realms,” explained Thor. “We protect them from each other.”

“But not from anything else?” asked Jasper.

Thor found himself bewildered by the question.

“Take something like the Tesseract,” Jasper tried again. “It’s Asgardian.”

“No, it is not,” replied Thor. “It is one of the mighty relics that predate the Nine Realms. Its power is comparable to the Aether, whose might you have beheld.”

“Thor, we get it, and, yeah, thanks for saving earth. We really do appreciate it. But I need to run this down. The Tesseract wasn’t of earth, you just said so yourself, but when the Red Skull used it to create weapons of mass destruction, did anyone at Asgard think, maybe we should stop this?”

Thor was stumped. “But the creatures handling the Tesseract were human, were they not? Within each realm, the inhabitants are free to do as they will.”

“Even with stuff that comes from outside the realm.”

“Otherwise Asgard would have to retrieve every meteorite. We maintain the balance between worlds. Within, each is on its own.” Thor leaned over the table, and adjusted his grip on Mjolnir. “Would you and your leader Fury have appreciated it if I had raised this hammer to stop Phase 2?”

“Probably not,” replied Jasper. “But Asgard intervened to stop Loki from using the Tesseract but not Red Skull. Even if Red Skull is much more committed to mass extermination than Loki.”

Thor shrugged. “Loki was wrong to set forth to make himself king of earth. These Nazis were of earth; therefore, it was theirs to do as they saw fit.”

“Thor, listen to ….I’ve got to stop saying that, it’s not professional,” replied Jasper. “How many Asgardians knew Loki was a shape-shifter?”

This stumped Thor. “I don’t know. He was famous among us for his skill in magic. But then so was my mother, the queen.”

“So, bastard, shape-shifter, sorcerer, feminine arts….” Jasper continued to write in his notebook. “And alone as the only Jotun.”

“He was not alone,” snapped Thor. “He had us. He was my brother, he was my father’s son and my mother’s.”

“Perhaps at home,” answered Jasper. “But everywhere else, Thor, are you really sure he was a prince of Asgard? It certainly doesn’t sound as if everyone treated him as one.”

“My father kept the fact that Loki was a Jotun secret.”

“But all this secrecy may have been the first thing everyone noticed about him, wasn’t it?” asked Jasper. "And the secrecy and Loki's difference and all the unanswered questions would have kept people talking, wouldn't it?"

This had bewildered Thor. And Jasper asked many more questions, all about Loki and Asgard and magic, and Thor tried to explain as best he could while Jasper wrote and wrote and demanded more detail about Loki’s strange gifts than Thor ever expected or knew how to answer.

But nothing he could think to say helped. Sitwell wished to know every detail about Loki’s attempt at suicide, and here Thor was truly stumped. All he could do was insist to the SHIELD agent that he knew nothing of the void or what could have happened to Loki lost in it.

That night, sailing with the wind and the rain over the white-capped ocean (for Thor flew home every night to London to stay with Jane) it chafed him more than ever that he had nothing to hit and nothing to do. Jane herself was a consolation, and Erik and Darcy were delighted to have Thor join them for dinner, but when Thor told Jane SHIELD expected him to continue the debriefing she sent him back across the Atlantic as a matter of course.

The next day both the woman Maria and Jasper were there, and the atmosphere in the SHIELD video room was decidedly more formal.

Sitwell made him go over a few points that Thor thought had he had exhausted the previous day. Only then, after yet another explanation of the events that transpired on Asgard while Thor was exiled as a mortal to earth, Maria leaned across the table and, looking earnestly at Thor, asked him: “If Loki can silently teleport between realms, and shapeshift into any person’s image, why did he travel to earth using the Tesseract and then appear in front of us always in his own shape?”

“I don’t understand,” said Thor. “He chose to, that is all.”

“But according to what you’re telling us he could have just wandered into the NASA dark energy lab and told us he needed to take the Tesseract,” said Jasper. “And if he looked exactly like Nick Fury we would have let him have it and been none the wiser.”

“Maybe he did not know that,” replied Thor.

“But once he had access to Barton’s and Selvig’s minds he could have just taken the form of Dr. Schafer and walked off with the Iridium,” said Maria. “No need for that whole ‘kneel before me’ show.”

“He wanted to be captured,” insisted Thor.

“Once he had the Tesseract, he could have just taken the Iridium, put together the portal on the top of Stark tower disguised as a Stark employee,” Jasper continued, exactly as if Thor hadn’t said anything at all, “and we wouldn’t know anything was happening until the Chitauri sea monsters were all over New York. And why New York? If it was Asgard he hated he could have stolen the Tesseract and used it to get back into Asgard.”

“Because of me. He knew the Earth was under my protection, and he wanted vengeance against me.”

“But if Loki wanted to harm earth, why not go straight to Asgard, use one of those Chitauri whale things to eat Heimdall – or reused the Casket on him; it’s still out there, isn’t it? – and then blasted Earth with the Bifrost just as he did to Jotunheim,” said Jasper.   “Why didn’t he do that?”

Thor fell silent. It had all seemed so simple and clear at the time.

“And why was he so fanatically loyal to Asgard when you were here,” asked Maria, “and then the next time he turns up he’s just giving Asgard the finger? Invading with an army from outer space when he knows the only thing Asgard does is protect planets from alien invasion?”

Thor spread his hands. This was not something that he thought about – for the thought that his brother, however mad, could be truly disloyal was fraught with more pain than was customary even for Thor’s sorrowing thoughts – and so he answered as quickly as he could.

“By proving himself adept at conquest my brother was both revenging himself upon me and gaining for himself the throne that he always sought. His destruction of Jotunheim may have been merely a fit of madness. Truly I do not know.”

However, apparently it did not do to tell SHIELD that he did not know. They had many more questions, mostly seeking such detail about Loki’s magic that Thor could answer them no more.

That night, as he joined the wind and the clouds upon their flight, he was more troubled than was even his wont in these dark days. Darcy and Selvig were sincere in their concern, and once he explained his disquiet Jane assured him he must have told SHIELD enough by now that he need not return. She explained that she had not thought SHIELD would be so interested in Loki dead and gone and that if she had know of what they questioned him she would not have told him to go back.

But Thor who would never flee from the most difficult fight did not see why he should run from what was nothing more than a conversation among people he counted as friends and comrades. Therefore at the appointed hour he threw his hammer across the Atlantic and flew down to the mortals awaiting him in this District of Columbia.

Jasper found Thor staring pensively at the great glass roof of the Triskelion glittering in the morning sun. “When this is over we should go out for coffee,” he said. “I’m sorry this feels like such an inquisition. We just didn’t know any of this stuff before.”

Thor bowed his leonine head. “I understand. In Asgard we take the will of the Allfather for granted. It never before occurred to me to think how differently our actions might appear to you here.”

Jasper shrugged.   “Just a few more questions. The Director needs to ask you something himself. After that you’re free to go, but keep us in mind -- I’m always happy to talk. Should I come out and wave whenever it starts to rain?”

“No need,” replied Thor with a smile, “I can harness the thunder but I am not behind every storm. But I thank you, friend Jasper, for your interest, and I promise I will stop by and seek you out when I find myself in this part of Midgard.”

“Anytime,” answered the SHIELD agent, leading him back to the familiar unloved grey-walled room, where Thor found another awaiting him besides Jasper and the woman who had been on the Helicarrier.

Nick Fury, pensive and inscrutable behind his one eye, did not ask Thor to repeat anything he has already said. Instead he took the conversation onto an entirely different track.

“Look, Thor,” said Nick, opening his hands in a deprecatory gesture, “there seems to be more here than we knew. There certainly seems to be plenty we didn’t know at the time. Have you ever heard of a mortal whose face looks like a red skull? Name of Johann Schmidt? I know Jasper here mentioned this to you yesterday but it doesn’t sound like you were asked whether you actually had heard of him.”

Thor shook his head.

“After our little war was over Cap came to us,” and Fury indicated all three of the mortals, “and told us now that he’d seen how the Tesseract transports people and things, he was afraid that his old enemy Red Skull was still alive. At the time Cap had thought it was killing him, and judging from the howls Red Skull thought the same, but now that we know better it might mean that Red Skull is still out there. You’ve told us several times that you didn’t get a chance to talk to Loki about his little invasion – first Odin forbade it, then the two of you were a little busy with Malekith and the Aether, we get that – but did you ever hear that maybe someone else was involved with Loki’s war? Either before or after?”

Again Thor shook his head. “My father spoke only of Earth and Loki. He said that creating weapons from the Tesseract was a sign that the earth was ready for a higher form of war.”

“And the Chitauri?” asked Nick.

“I have told you, they are of no known world,” replied Thor. “I have told all that I know, and all that the Allfather told me.”

“If they are of no known world, how did Odin know their name?”

“I know not,” replied Thor.

The mortals fell silent, looking at each other, and Thor wanted to hit something so badly that his hand tightened on Mjolnir. However, the Director had only one more question for Thor.

“Why do you think Loki wanted vengeance against you?” Nick asked, almost gently. Jasper had put away his notebook, and both SHIELD agents sat quiet and rapt on either side of their mortal leader.

“He felt I had taken his place in Asgard,” answered Thor.

Nick stood up and held out his hand.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” he says, and while the Director’s handshake was firm and he uttered the standard SHIELD formula with conviction, Thor felt a chill between him and this mortal the like of which he had never felt before on this earth in any era.

And behind him, just before the door shut, he heard Jasper say to the woman, “what place was that? Faggot Jotun bastard?”

It took all of Thor’s self-command not to turn around, reopen the door, and throw the mortal against the wall as he had done more than once in Asgard when he had heard such whispers against his brother. Yet he did not, for he understood that the mortals would not realize he would but be defending his family's and his brother's honor; instead, he flew onto his next task, and rejoiced to see the relief and joy when he summoned the rain to the mortals’ parched fields and forests.

Nor did he ever speak of it when his travels happened to bring him back to the Triskelion. Instead, he kept his word: whenever he flew over this strange district, he would land before the glittering hall and seek the agent Jasper to join him for a coffee, a request that would always be granted. They never spoke of Loki again, and Thor could detect no sign of distaste in Jasper's words or deeds. Thor now had only his own thoughts to blame for any disturbance that he might still feel in the presence of the mortal SHIELD agent, who remained as welcoming and as appreciative as ever.

And yet still Thor has nothing to hit and nothing to do…..

 


	5. Reconsideration

“You don’t appear disturbed,” said Tony. “Hell, you don’t even seem surprised. Don’t tell me this is the kind of thing SHIELD knew all along. Please don’t tell me this is the kind of thing Hydra knew all along.”

“Appearances are deceiving,” replied Maria. “SHIELD did not expect both Red Skull and a third party.”

“But you expected Red Skull,” said Bruce.

“Once Thor arrived, Sitwell and I undertook to debrief him,” explained Maria, “and the discrepancies between what Loki could do on Asgard and what he did on Earth jumped out immediately. And then Thor had no explanation for the Chitauri – who they were, where they were from, why they would be Loki’s to command, especially since they may not even have been Loki’s to command….”

“Wait, what?” demanded Tony.

“Remember your little talk that took place here? Right before Loki threw you through a window? Remember how Loki told you, ‘The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that.’”

“Yeah, but that was just Loki telling me that nothing I said or did could change that.”

“Are you sure?”

Tony looked at Bruce, and Bruce looked at Tony.

“Ok, maybe,” said Bruce, still cautious, “but what made you or Sitwell think the Chitauri were being commanded by this long-dead Red Skull?”

“After Thor took Loki back to Asgard, Cap told us he was pretty sure that the Tesseract transported him Bifrost-style.”

“So Red Skull was just hanging out on some other realm, then, like our Capsicle.” Tony started to pace.

“Except that he was live and kicking his heels and wondering when he could come back to finish the job,” added Maria. “We started with Loki’s speeches. If the God of Lies really were trying to take over earth, he’d surely think of something persuasive or clever to say. Instead, he parodies Hydra.”

“Sitwell said that?”

“No, I did. Sitwell shot it down,” said Maria, “and I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you why. Of course, Red Skull wouldn’t know that Hydra survived the war any more than Captain America would. After we talked to Thor we figured that Red Skull sent Loki to Hydra targets – Germany and New York – and taught him how to spout that Hydra gibberish.”

“But Hydra would have tried to just kill everyone.” Tony stopped pacing, and contemplated the now-blank screen.

“And if Loki had been on board he would have done the same. Loki in Asgard had no problem killing off a world – if he wanted to.” Here Maria paused, and then continued.   “What Thor told us about his brother clinched it. The key was that Loki had all these skills, or talents, none of which we saw. No magic. No shape-shifting. No teleporting, except for very short distances as part of his casting of illusions – no different from what he’d done on Jotunheim. Certainly no teleporting between worlds…”

“Loki can teleport from outer space?” demanded Tony, and looked as if he going to start pacing again. “Without the Tesseract or the Bifrost?”

“When SHIELD took Thor into custody in New Mexico, Loki appeared to Thor in the middle of SHIELD’s secure facilities,” answered Maria. “Nobody saw him but he may have suspected that we had something that could because he was wearing a suit, similar to the one he wore in Stuttgart. He didn’t show up in full Asgardian gear, but he was here all right, and SHIELD’s cameras picked him up.”

“Maybe it was just a projection,” suggested Banner. “He can project false images of himself. That’s how he killed Coulson.”

“Not that time,” replied Maria. “In New Mexico he tried to lift Thor’s hammer, even if only the cameras could see it.”

“Wait, I thought you had to be worthy to pick up Thor’s hammer,” and Tony’s fingers scratched air quotes around worthy. “So our crazy interstellar Machiavelli thinks sending the Destroyer to trash a town makes him worthy?”

“While he was also committing genocide against Jotunheim,” added Maria. “Yes. That hammer is Asgardian – and once thing we quickly established debriefing Thor is that Asgardian values are, well, not exactly in line with international human rights.”

“They’re not human,” said Bruce, “why would they be?”

“But Loki did use that replication ability of his,” said Tony, beginning to pace again. “He magicked copies of himself at Stuttgart, and again on the Helicarrier.”

“Look at what Red Skull remembers about the Jotunheim report made by Thanos' minion. Anyone who’d seen Loki fighting in Jotunheim knew he could do the copying trick, so there was no point concealing that,” replied Maria. “Loki didn’t help this Thanos and Red Skull with any skills they wouldn't already know about.”

“Back to the real problem,” said Tony. “SHIELD figures out that Red Skull is alive and that Loki was invading earth for him. I get it, it would explain why our friendly neighborhood alien knew to go after the Tesseract. But you’re also telling us that SHIELD already knew that Loki wasn’t really helping Red Skull. Are you telling us that Loki threw the fight? Because I was there and it was a real fight.”

“Loki had to destroy Red Skull’s Chitauri army. He figured the Hulk could do it for him and he was right,” replied Bruce. “He was after the Other Guy all along.”

“SHIELD’s analysis was that Loki seems to have thought with the Bifrost destroyed that it was impossible for Thor or anyone else to come to earth from Asgard," said Maria. "He wouldn’t care about surrendering to us because earth could never build a prison that could hold him. At SHIELD we thought that Loki just needed to destroy Red Skull’s army to get away from Red Skull.”

“Now it turns out he had to get away from a lot more than Red Skull. Thanos beating up Loki explains one thing,” said Bruce. “Loki looked far chipper after being smashed by me than he ever did on arrival. I always wondered about that.”

Both Tony and Maria looked at him.

"After I became human," amended Bruce. "The Other Guy doesn't wonder about much."

“SHIELD was also sure that Loki expected a better response from Odin and Thor,” said Maria, getting back to the topic at hand. “We were all surprised by the muzzle.”

“But if what this rosacrea Nazi said about that oath Loki swore is true,” said Tony, pulling up a glowing screen and opening files that containing pictures from World War II, “the muzzle was just Odin helping this Thanos along with keeping Asgard safe, very much at the expense of our own planet. Assuming Odin knows about the oath, of course, which makes the guy even more of a dick. Hey, did SHIELD game out the possibility that Asgard knows more about all of this than Thor lets on? Especially about this Thanos creature. Do we think Thor is lying to us?”

“Does Thor even know how to lie?” asked Bruce.

“Yes,” said Maria, who’d seen all the files.

“How did Heimdall never see any of this?” demanded Tony. “Heimdall is supposed to see everything. Our interstellar Nazi isn’t going to know any magic that can conceal him from Heimdall, and, as for Thanos, it sounds as if everyone in the galaxy knows about him. Everybody but us, that is. And Thor is best buddies with Heimdall, isn’t he? Did Thor ever say anything about Thanos? When SHIELD debriefed him? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables. I need more information. I need to know what Thor knows about all this.”

“All Thor has ever said was what he told us on the Helicarrier,” replied Maria. “We’ve asked him repeatedly if there could be anyone else involved besides Loki. He always said no.”

“Even though Thor himself told us that Loki would be leading the Chitauri army,” said Bruce. “And yet the Chitauri were Red Skull’s contribution to Thanos’ arsenal. And according to Red Skull, Loki never even controlled them.”

Tony looked at Bruce, and Bruce looked at Tony.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said Bruce.

 


	6. Remorse

Thor was ushering a small sliver of the monsoon over the Himalayas to drought-ridden north China when, twelve hours after it happened. the official television news reported that the Triskelion had been destroyed. He flew back to London and Jane at once; she, Darcy, Erik and Ian were safe, but they did not know what had become of the others.

Presently Tony contacted them all, and Thor learned that while Maria had survived both Nick and his friend Jasper were dead. And now he knew of two more losses, two more mortal deaths, which his strong right arm and his hammer had failed to prevent.

Or so he put it to Erik when Erik next insisted they go out for a drink. Thor was always careful never to drink Erik under the table again – for he knew that one who had been no match for Thor’s mere mortal form could ever hope to keep up with the God of Thunder – but this time he had another reason not to drink: now more than ever he needed the mortal’s sober counsel.

Yet Erik did not even seem to share his concern. “Don’t blame yourself,” he advised Thor, after ordering another boilermarker, “if this agent decided to be loyal to Hydra there was nothing you could do. You can’t hammer everything. Spying is what SHIELD does; let them handle it.”

“I can fly,” offered Thor, “that may have been what the good Captain needed.”

“He managed to destroy the helicarriers just the same. Don’t volunteer. Look at what happened to me -- I did everything I could, but all I ever hear is, didn’t we see you naked on the television?” griped Eric, and took another swig. “You did save everyone from the convergence. People are grateful. That should be enough.”

“I am wondering now if it is. Mjolnir gives me no trouble, and yet my friends die without me.”

“Mjolnir is a hammer,” said Erik, and poured another shot of whiskey into his beer. At Thor’s questioning look he put down his drink and added, “We have a saying: to a hammer everything looks like a nail. If you delegate all your moral choices to a hammer you should expect that it will see nothing except nails.”

Thor thought about this, all the while being careful to sip his beer slowly, and said, “I always believed that as long as I could lift Mjolnir I would be doing what is right. My hammer is mine once more, yet somehow, again, I have no idea what I should do."

Erik shrugged. "But you are not exiled to Midgard this time. If you feel you have no business here, there is nothing to stop you from returning to Asgard. There is no shortage of praise for you there."

For a moment Thor was discomforted; then he remembered how Erik had bid him to "leave town tonight" in New Mexico, and then never spoken of it again. "Praise can do more evil than blame," replied Thor. "I think I know that now. It is not praise that I seek. It is just that this time I am not even sure what it is that I am doing wrong.”

Erik considered, looking first at his own beer and then at Thor’s, which was still almost full. “Not drinking enough,” was the only reply that the God of Thunder got out of him, that night or any other.

And all too bitterly mindful that Erik’s madness was his brother’s work, Thor did not press.

His next conversation on the topic went no better.

He did not see Darcy all that often these days; she was often out with Ian, exploring London, and he suspected that she was really not that much help in the lab. However, a few months after the Triskelion collapsed into the Potomac, Darcy and Ian invited Thor out for a drink.

This relatively rare event, it turned out, had ulterior causes.

“Hey, are you going to that alien politics conference that Oxford wants you for in July? They want you so bad that they’ve taken to stalking Ian and me,” Darcy said, after the three of them had settled into a booth by the window. Jane, as usual, had declined to join them. Through the open line of windows, the London sidewalk below them shone in the evening rain, reflecting the glow of lanterns hung invitingly just under the eaves of the historic pub, golden against the dark.

“They’re starting to dangle research grants,” added Ian. “A bit of competition for Stark, that.”

“Yeah, but Jane says she needs to go back to the U.S., she needs empty sunny skies and no light pollution.” Darcy took a pull on her beer. “And I agree. All this rain gets old. But a nice shindig at Oxford, where they wine and dine you? I could go for that. Are you interested at all, Thor?”

Thor shook his head. “We are taught on Asgard that we are not to interfere with the worlds we protect. We are to fight the dark elves, the Chitauri and the frost giants on your planet only when they threaten your world.   I have changed enough as it is merely by coming here, and more still by lingering among you as I have done. To go to your universities to speak freely about other realms would be wrong.”

“But everyone’s really curious about these aliens." Ian took a swig and elbowed Darcy. “Which ones were the frost giants again?”

Thor shrugged. “That was before my time.”

“You know Jane said we’re not supposed to discuss frost giants.” Darcy elbowed him back and hissed at him in a whisper loud enough to be heard across the table in a noisy bar.

“It does not bother me if you do,” replied Thor. “Because of my brother?”

Darcy and Ian looked at each other. “Yeah, kinda,” said Darcy. “Look, don’t feel so bad, OK? I know you feel bad about him dying because of the Dark Elves and all, but remember what a little shit he was. SHIELD has this tape of him talking shit to you back in New Mexico, Jasper showed me. He was wearing a suit, lying through his teeth and trying like fuck to break your heart.”

“Then he tried less, and succeeded more, on Svaltalfheim," replied Thor. “I told him I would kill him when he betrayed me. He did not betray me, and yet still I killed him.”

“You so did not. Kurse did. Look, the frost giants were like the dark elves, you just said so yourself. Thor, you’re an Asgardian prince – it doesn’t matter what you did to Loki or Kurse or any of the other frost giants or elves or whatever.”

Ian’s eyes widened in horror at this, but Thor felt more sadness than anger. “It mattered not that he was a Jotun; he was my brother.”

“But he wasn’t really, was he? At best, Odin took him as a trophy or a hostage. At worse, Odin took him just to raise him to turn the knife in Laufey, which he did, and to destroy Jotunheim, which he seriously tried to do. You treated him better than anyone else in Asgard, so stop beating up on yourself.”

Thor turned this over in his head. “We were his family,” he said. “He was raised as my brother, as my father’s son. He was not a hostage. No-one knew he was Jotun, least of all himself.”

“No rumors?” asked Ian. “No blokes going, here, Loki, can you spot me a bit of ice for my drink, now there’s a good monster?”

This was too close to what Jasper had asked. “I don’t know,” replied Thor, unwilling to continue. “And I would not have listened, if I had.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Darcy insisted, tripping over the words. Thor realized she was a bit drunk; it took scarcely a single stein before these fragile creatures were inebriated, and she was already on her second bottle. “Odin kinda likes genocide as a policy, doesn’t he? First the frost giants, then the dark elves. Dark elves twice, actually, if you count Bor. Twice! Not your fault, Thor.” She finished her beer and put it on the edge of the table for the waitress to collect. “But you should really go to Oxford, they’re trying to figure out who’s next.”

“This is why I do not want to be King of Asgard,” replied Thor, as earnestly as he could. “I would rather be a good man than a great king.”

“That ship might have sailed, though, already,” advised Ian.    

“How do you mean?” demanded Thor. Then he thought about what Darcy had said, and knit his brow. “SHIELD has a video of my brother? When I was mortal?”

“Bloody useful, that,” Ian went on, exactly as if he hadn’t heard Thor’s last question. “I mean your enemies and your brother and the whole lot of ‘em dead already before you decide to go straight. That’s the way to do it, right?” he added defensively, as he noticed they were looking at him. “Do anything you want, then, when you’ve gotten your enemies, your rivals, whatnot, killed, then say, OK, from here on in I won’t do anything wrong. Bloody convenient, I call it.”

Thor stood, very carefully counted out a hundred pounds in twenty pound notes from his wallet and pushed them over the table to Darcy. “Enjoy yourselves,” he told them, “my heart is not in merriment tonight.”

They were both immediately apologetic, Darcy especially voluble about how she intended to dump Ian’s sorry ass at the first opportunity. But Thor bowed his head, stepped away, and left them there.

Once outside the pub, he paused beyond the view of the windows, wondering if his departure had caused the rupture promised by Darcy. But the mortal couple's fight, if indeed it had happened, must have been brief. Through the open windows Thor could hear Ian telling Darcy something about a moving picture that featured a Sir Robin who bravely ran away, and Darcy appeared to be agreeing that bravely running away was truly Asgardian; therefore, when Thor heard Ian ordering another round for them both, beyond the sight of the windows of the pub the God of Thunder took to the freedom of the air with a palpable sense of relief that only deepened when, the next day, it was clear that neither of the badly hungover mortals remembered what had been said by anyone.

But worst of all was to come, with Jane, when he asked her about what Darcy had told him. Because she never willingly spoke of Loki to him, he brought it up himself one morning over breakfast. Sipping a cup of her excellent coffee he told her what he felt she should know of what Darcy had said. "How came any mortals to know of that conversation? For my brother shielded himself from mortal eyes.”

“Yeah, but not from mortal camera equipment,” said Jane. “I know you mourn him, and it does you justice that you do, but to have him dead may be for the best. I am not sure what kind of life he would ever had had, even if you… I mean, if Odin didn’t succeed in locking him up for all time.”

“My brother was no parricide,” growled Thor. “The death of Laufey did him no dishonor. We were at war; he won it.”

“Thor, I’m not calling your brother a criminal, I’m just saying that by making him kill his own father Odin made sure he’d never have a relationship with his own family. How could he ever go home to Jotunheim after something like that?”

“And why would Loki ever have wanted to go to Jotunheim?” demanded Thor, genuinely horrified. “Laufey was a monster and the Jotuns are monsters all. I agree it may have been wrong for him to be sent to war upon Jotunheim, but it was I and not Odin who was guilty of that folly.”

“But if Laufey’s a monster than Loki’s a monster too,” complained Jane. “After all, he was a Jotun, wasn’t he?”

“It matters not that he was a Jotun; he was my brother.”

“Thor, you aren’t getting it. It’s not about whether Loki looks good in the eyes of Asgard; it’s about whether Loki could ever be in touch with – himself, I guess, for lack of a better term. His people, at any rate."

“He could not want ever what you claim to seek,” declared Thor, “nor could I ever propose it to him. I do not understand what he did, and he must have been mad at least part of the time, but I cannot believe he ever truly meant to commit treason against Asgard.”

“Thor, you don’t understand me. I’m not talking about Asgard. Obviously everyone there simply hated him.”

“Not until he went mad.”

“No, Thor, all the time. Jotunheim was a whole other realm but it was always O.K. to destroy it? How many people in Asgard knew Loki was a Jotun?”

Thor hesitated. “I …. I don’t know.”

"Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t mention it again.”

Thor felt as if some sort of mysterious gulf had opened before him. “Do you think that what was done troubles me not?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But do you truly think that to Mother and I my brother was just a Jotun?”

Jane hesitated, apparently debating with herself whether she should speak. “Well, when we were on Svartalfheim, you told him to identify himself as Laufeyson, or something,” she faltered, “I was pretty sick from the Aether and just trying to stay upright. But I’m sure I remember he told Malekith that he was ‘Loki of Jotunheim.’ Why couldn’t you have asked him to say, oh, I don’t know, ‘Loki of Midgard’? It wouldn’t have mattered to anyone but him and it would have been at least as true.”

Thor stared at her.

Jane took a deep breath and continued. “I mean, he belonged more to earth than he ever did to Jotunheim. He tried to take over earth, but Jotunheim he just wanted to destroy. So why force him to own it?” And then when Thor still did not answer, shed added, “It was an insult and a reminder of what was so wrong about him all his life, and it was just about the last thing you ever said to him. Before he was dying outright, that is.”

Thor stood, longing for the safety of the vast empty sky beyond the little London kitchen, and wondering with sickened grief whether there were any mortals on Midgard from whom he would not eventually wish to flee. “Then do I, too, stand condemned in your eyes? He saved your life and mine, from Kurse.”

“I know, I know, I was there.”

“Do you really believe that I did not value his life?”

“I’m sure you loved him. But, look, Thor, even if you didn’t succeed in putting him back into his cell in Asgard, where would he go? He couldn’t go to Jotunheim, we all know how welcome he’d be on earth, who did he have on Asgard but you and your mother? Where in the nine realms could Loki ever have been happy?”

Thor found he could not answer this. He did not want to agree with Jane, and yet found nothing that she had said with which he could disagree. “I swear to you that I would not have returned him to eternal imprisonment on Asgard.”

“Look, Thor, I don’t want to talk about it if you don’t want to, but, um, you did swear to him that you would, you told me so yourself.”

“Because I did not think. The Allfather spared his life merely for the sake of our mother. With our mother gone there would have been no reason for the Allfather to keep him alive. He would have been as good as dead had he lived and had I kept my word.”

“And since Loki was a dead man walking, that gives you as much of a right to kill him as Odin, doesn’t it?”

“Jane, that is not my intent to say.”

Jane was instantly apologetic. “All I meant to say was that the living Loki was in, well, an impossible bind. He’s better off dead. Really. Let’s just not talk about this anymore, OK?” and with that she, too, stood, and began to gather up the dishes from the table.

And with that Thor could wholeheartedly agree, as he helped her carry their breakfast plates to the sink.

His Jane was as good as her word: she never spoke about it again, nor did he. But now a shadow divided them, and with all his strength he knew not how to fight against a shade.

Thus more and more often he took to the skies, and roamed there, even more troubled now than in his first wild grief. Though his path cut through artic blizzards and high stormclouds his thoughts bit more sharply than the iciest air. Now more than ever he missed the consolation and wisdom of Queen Frigga, but his mother was dead, dead because he feared his brother’s escape from prison more than the attack of an enemy whose most ancient weapon he had given to his mother to hold and keep at a time when he himself already knew that the stories of the Dark Elves were not what he had always thought.

To avoid painful thoughts of Asgard he had grown accustomed to turn his thoughts to Midgard. Always until now he had felt as if Midgard had made him a gift to compensate for every loss he sustained upon Asgard.   Thus even as had lost his powers (albeit temporarily), his brother, his mother, and finally his faith in Asgard’s imperial justice, Midgard had offered him companionship, comrades, a just war, honor and finally love. And now somehow, somewhere on the strange and tortuous path between the realms that appeared to be his destiny, he had lost the mortals' good opinion and their esteem; and he found this loss grieved him more than Odin’s unspoken pride, the gratitude of the nine realms or Asgard’s adulation.

Now more than ever he regretted his own blindness toward his brother’s rage, a rage he had never tried to understand, even as he had turned it to use for a plan doomed to fail. He acknowledged to himself once again that he had succeeded in stopping Malekith only with the aid of the mortals’ gravimetric spikes, and not merely by the strength of Mjolnir. It made him sick at heart to remember what Jane and Darcy had said. And yet worse, somehow, was Ian’s remark, drunk and thoughtless as the boy had been: was his trial behind him, and had he in fact failed it?

And if that were true then with all of heaven and earth before him, in all his majesty and might, Thor saw a desolation. He could travel anywhere between heaven and earth, but wherever he might land, he would come to rest only upon his own wrecked hopes. His hour of testing had come and gone and he had failed. And he seemed to see Jane with all her love grieve for the hero whom he should have been, even as she was steadfast in her compassion and understanding for the flawed man he was.

And so alone among the lightning sprites that flash up from the clouds too high for the mortals to see, Thor realized that he would always be faced with questions about Loki that he could not answer, and hear behind his back whispers against Asgard to which he could offer no defense, and he discovered, as he never thought he could while he held Mjolnir, the bitterness of failure.


	7. Replay

“JARVIS, do we have an update on Cap? Maybe even an ETA?”

“Under a minute, sir. He is entering the lobby now.”

“How’d that happen?”

“I texted him as soon as I saw Red Skull,” explained Maria. “He’s in New York.”

“Captain America knows how to text?” asked Tony.

“And you have his phone number?” asked Bruce.

“Yes, and yes,” replied Maria, as they all heard the sound of the elevator doors opening.

Tony was the first to move, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw that Steve had not come alone. “Who’s this guy?” demanded Tony.

“Sam Wilson,” said Sam, extending a hand.

“The Falcon,” added Cap. “He helped me take out the Triskelion in D.C.”

“Not another birdguy,” said Tony. “Don’t tell me you use a bow and arrow.”

Sam only grinned. “No. The Exo-7 jet pack. Designed and built by Stark Industries, I believe.”

Tony looked blank. “I don’t remember that one.”

“Is that why you didn’t make any more?” asked Sam. “It’s not the safest thing in the world, I’ll give you that…”

“And this is Bruce Banner,” said Maria hastily. “Bruce, Sam. Sam, Bruce.”

They shook hands, and Sam asked Bruce, “Are you in New York now?”

“Yes, teaching at Columbia,” answered Bruce. “A graduate seminar on ionizing radiation.”

“Didn’t you break Harlem the last time you were staying in New York?” demanded Captain America.

“That’s what they tell me,” replied Bruce, wearily.

“Whose idea was it to invite you to teach at Columbia?”

“Probably the dean in charge of real estate. Columbia always wants to expand the campus, and I hear some of our neighbors are reluctant to sell.”

“Very funny,” said Tony. “For the record, Bruce is often here helping me with some research. And he just brought me something we need you to see.”

“You were right,” said Steve to Maria.

“No, you were right,” replied Maria, “our old enemy was still alive out there. We were wrong about Loki’s little war being Hydra’s war. It turns out to have been someone else’s entirely.”

“What, another extraterrestrial monster?” said Sam.

“Kinda,” said Tony, “right now there seem to be lots. But the one who hitched a ride home during the last war has a very terrestrial origin.” And he played the video again.

 

            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

 

Tony was the first to speak.

“What I need to know is, just how blue did Loki turn when he died on Svartalfheim?”

“I’ll review Jane’s debriefing, but she was still sick from the Aether and I’m not sure Sitwell ever got that far with Thor,” said Maria. “He really didn’t want to talk about it.”

"Part of that might have been Sitwell,” added Steve. “I remember Sitwell complaining to me that Thor just didn’t seem to get how Loki was treated in Asgard...."

“I think Tony is talking about whether or not Loki’s actually dead,” interjected Bruce. “Right now.”

“He can't be,” said Maria, considering. “If what Red Skull says about what Thanos did to Loki is true, there's no possibility a simple spear thrust could kill him.”

“Yeah, well, even if our little interstellar fifth column turns out to be alive, what are we looking for here? A very powerful teleporting magician who can make himself look like anyone and who could be anywhere in nine realms, eight of which we can’t even get to,” said Tony. “Something tells me this might not be so easy.”

“You’re wrong,” said Sam. Everyone looked at him.

“Wait, what?” said Tony. “I love how you rock the Stark wings and all, but look, you weren’t even there.”

“Loki saved Jane more than once from Malekith…..”

“How do you know that?” asked Bruce, and he looked at Maria. “Do you guys invite everyone to your debriefings but me?”

“I admit that we went over Thor’s mission reports with Cap here more than once. We had materials in the files about Red Skull’s search for Asgardian artifacts – and SSR had picked up a lot of strange stuff at the different Hydra bases.” Maria turned to face Steve. “I assume you told Sam about it.”

“I trust Sam with my life,” he replied. “And I told him everything I could remember about Red Skull on the train coming here. And about Thor.”

“So give us your best shot, new guy,” said Tony.

“Loki knows Red Skull is here and plotting to get into the Asgardian weapons vault ahead of this Thanos. He knows Jane’s work involves wormholes and bridges between the realms, and quite possibly that Jane has been to Asgard herself. He knows the one thing Red Skull on earth is going to do is try to get his hands on Jane and her research once it's done.” Sam paused. “Loki’s here, on earth, protecting Jane from Red Skull.”

 


	8. Report

 

“Do you think we’re ready for some kind of public announcement?” Darcy pulled up the results on her tablet, and once again appreciated that Stark’s guy offer of sponsorship. Not bad to have both better tech as well as a paycheck. This snazzy new tablet beat the stuffing out of her old Macbook.

“No. We’re nowhere close.”

“Yeah but this was the last of the theoretical kinks, wasn’t it? I mean, you don’t have to wait until we have an actual working rainbow bridgy thingy before you tell anyone.”

“Darcy, do you have any idea how many papers I’ve published? To a reception of complete and utter silence? And now you want me to make a public announcement? Please tell me who you think would listen.”

“Well, someone might care about the fact that you’re publishing the last of the wonk papers and you’re ready to move on to building the damn thing.”

“Except that I’m not.”

“Only because you’re you, Jane, OK? Stark would have been building the thing a long time ago. He builds first, then he theorizes. Instead, you’re rechecking equations. And then asking Erik to redo your math, and now sending me back to New Mexico to re-remeasure shit. Again.”

“We haven’t heard from Stark, have we?”

“I haven’t. Have you?”

“No.” Jane ran her fingers through her hair. “I mean, not yet.”

The doorbell rang. Jane and Darcy looked at each other.

Darcy spoke first. “I”ll get it,” and jumped up to open the door.

Once inside the apartment, Maria Hill silently took off her sopping rain coat and hung it on the coatrack.

Jane and Darcy spoke at the same time.

“I know I haven’t been in touch, but the theoretical results are in. I was merely waiting until they were ready. Erik is checking his calculations…”

“We totally have numbers for you. I know I haven’t been answering your last emails, but I swear I had to check with Jane…”

Maria held up her hand; both women fell silent.

“Jane,” Maria spoke very carefully, “I’m pleased to hear that but that’s not why I’m here. We have news. News we're going to have to ask both of you to keep under the lid, especially from Thor. And we have a very big favor that we need to ask from you…..”


	9. Realization

Stunned and silent, Jane sat among them, endeavoring to take in what she just seen and heard while the others chattered around her.

“So our Schmidt went to Seattle after all? You’re sure?” Bruce asked Tony.

“Hit it, JARVIS.”

“Thank you sir. A certain Johann Schmidt is currently the CEO of the Kovacs Corporation. Offices are located in Bellevue but the CEO’s residence is in Laurelhurst, aerial footage of which is on display.”

The last blurry image of Red Skull and Zola faded, replaced with a sharply detailed Stark drone photograph of a flat-roofed, mid-century modern mansion; its irregular trapezoidal roof hedged in by trees, save for the south side, on which it abutted a pristine green lawn that sloped down to what appeared to be open water. The greenery surrounding the other three sides of the house was too dense to show anything but lush treetops but there seemed to be nothing on the water’s edge other than a modest boathouse on a dock nestled among waterlillies.

“… Kovacs corporation has been on a hiring binge since first established approximately ten months ago with seed capital of ….”

“JARVIS, get to the point.”

“The Kovacs CEO is famous for being secretive but nothing known about Johann Schmidt, Red Skull, is incompatible with Johann Schmidt, CEO of Kovacs.”

“Tony, maybe Stark Corporation can host an exhibition there, or something?” asked Steve. "We might need to lure him out of his lair."

“On the Foster Theory? On our awesome progress weaponizing it? Maria, we’re doing a conference in Seattle. Set it up.”

“Um, Tony, we already have a conference in Seattle. The 20th International Air and Space conference. Stark Industries co-hosts with Boeing and Microsoft, remember? The workshop on Satellite Design Education that we repackaged to be your TED talk? Technical Solutions in Space? Ring a bell, Tony?”

“My god, you’re as bad as Pepper.”

“There’s a reason Pepper and I get along as well as we do. Why not have Jane make an announcement? She's finished modeling the equations, no reason it can't be a press event. Tony, you can tell everyone all about the new wormhole generator that Stark is building. Even Bruce can talk ….”

“About what?” demanded Bruce. “None of my work is anything like what Tony and Jane do.”

“Who cares?” replied Maria. Around her levitating circle of floating screens glowed in response to her gestures; a similar set of screens began circling Tony. “Just give me a topic, let me figure out how to work it into the program. You know why we need you there. Talk about whatever and it’ll be interesting for anyone who signs up. It’s perfectly plausible for you and Jane to be added at the last minute, especially if Jane is going to announce a breakthrough in the theoretical physics of the Foster Theory.”

“Nothing like news of a working prototype to bring out the best in people,” added Sam, watching them with his arms folded.

“Or the worst.” Steve stood, crossing the floor to stand protectively near Jane. “Are you O.K. with this? Because we are truly putting you in harm’s way.”

“Yes,” answered Jane. “You don’t understand how much I need to do this. For Thor.”

“But remember you can’t say anything about this to him,” Maria reminded her.

“Not likely.”

“Why not?” Sam asked quietly.

“We quarreled.”

Maria and Tony both stopped waving their hands at the floating interfaces, and turned with the others to stare at her. Jane took a deep breath. “We quarreled,” she repeated. “About Asgard. About Loki, really. It wasn’t pretty. I couldn’t ask Thor if I wanted to, he doesn’t get it.”

"Doesn't get what?" demanded Tony.

"Doesn't get that it's not like Loki just did maybe one wrong thing, and otherwise everything is O.K.," replied Jane. "Doesn't get that Asgard isn't what it should be."

“Then maybe we need to worry about more than Thor," said Steve. "Has Thor given you any indication that Heimdall’s seen anything?” He looked around at the others, but especially at Tony. “I think we’ve established that Asgard’s rules of engagement would allow Red Skull to use the Tesseract to harm people, but when does Asgard come after Loki? It’s one thing for Asgard to do nothing while Red Skull kicks our ass, that seems to be their standard M.O., but if we do manage to get Loki to talk to us, won’t they come for him?”

“Stark Industries in Seattle is a secure facility,” answered Maria, returning her attention to the glowing screens. “There’s a basement lab that I'm turning into a war room as part of our preparations for the conference.”

“Secure from what?” asked Bruce. “We’re dealing with superpowered aliens here. How do we know Heimdall can’t see and hear us talking to Loki? And if he finds out we’re suspicious of Thor and Asgard, and tells Odin, what then?” He grinned sadly. “Anyone thinks we need the Other Guy to smash up Asgard?”

Tony gestured toward the screen. “Well, I’ve been showing this little movie to friends and family for a while now. And presumably Heimdall watched the original back in the day.”

“And Asgard did nothing,” said Steve. “Even when Loki was invading Earth, all we got was Thor with no backup. If we were going to hear from Asgard about any of this I expect we would have done so by now.”

“I think I can explain about Heimdall,” said Jane, slowly, thinking it through even as she spoke. “I think it’s quite possible Heimdall saw all of this and didn’t tell Thor. Heimdall betrays the Allfather if Thor needs him too, but remember that when he did that he also felt compelled to turn himself in.   This means that while’s he’s willing to help Thor, helping Thor can happen one time only, and I’m sure he’d need it to be at Thor's specific request. And even if Heimdall knew that Loki was loyal to Asgard all along, remember there is no love lost between Heimdall and Loki. It’s quite possible Heimdall wouldn’t care whether Loki was tortured – and wouldn’t tell Thor just because that would upset him.”

“Hey,” said Tony, looking at Steve, “fuck that no backup. Thor came alone because we had Loki in custody at that moment in time and it looked as if his little war wouldn’t happen at all. Without the war, Thor had no excuse to make us hand over the cube.” He turned on Jane. “Thor was just here for the Tesseract, wasn’t he?”

“No,” said Jane, aware she wasn’t convincing, wretchedly aware she wasn't convinced of what she said herself. “He came here to defend earth.”

“Tony, if you hadn’t opened the cargo door Thor never would have been able to take Loki,” replied Steve. “I sincerely doubt he would have ripped the chopper open. But we’re getting off target here. What if Red Skull does get to Loki before us?”

“He won’t,” Jane promptly replied. “If Loki had ever changed his mind he could have taken that Asgardian skiff straight to Thanos and handed over me, Thor and the Aether. It was a magical ancient relic, after all. Nothing could have made the lot of us more welcome to Thanos than that.”

“Yes, and that’s why we’re trusting Loki all of a sudden,” said Bruce. “Weird though it feels.”

“I’m trusting Loki. Fuck me, I’m trusting Loki.” Tony stood up and started to pace again, this time back and forth in front of Jane where she sat quietly in her chair. "But I'm not trusting Asgard or Odin. They're dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop it." He walked over to where Jane still sat hunched in front of the screen, leaned over her and put his hands on the armrests of her chair. She instinctively drew back, but she looked him in the eye.

“But here’s what’s eating me: can we trust Thor?” Tony asked her.

“Of course we can.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, he’s Thor, he’s who he says he is.”

Tony stood up and started to pace in front of her. “Yeah, he’s your boyfriend, you trust him. But the rest of us aren’t in a committed relationship with him, and Asgard is double dealing. Loki and Jotunheim were just roadkill. From the sound of it, Loki was happy to make earth roadkill to distract Thanos from Asgard. Why wouldn’t Thor feel the same?”

Jane was taken aback. “Earth is under Thor’s protection. That’s why he’s here, it’s not me. Believe me, I’d love to think it’s me. But he was gone for two years. It’s not me that brought him back, Mr. Stark. It’s earth he’s here to protect.”

Tony stopped pacing, crossed his arms, and gave Jane a level stare. “Up to a point. Perhaps up to a very certain point. Ms. Foster, you just told us you quarreled with Thor over Loki and Asgard, didn’t you? Can you tell us more about that?”

Jane noticed that the room had become very quiet; even Maria fell still. Everyone was looking at her again. She took a deep breath, and said, “We quarreled about Loki being a Jotun. Thor was kind of denying that he ever was one. I get the sense that with Thor you’re either in or out. If you’re in he’ll be loyal to the death.   If you’re out he …he doesn’t get it.”

“Assuming Thor shares information with those you think he considers in, then, if he doesn’t tell us something, does that mean we’re out?” Tony sketched quote marks in the air and then pointed to the screen. “Assuming Heimdall sees everything. Or Odin’s ravens, who talk to Odin and who knows who else up there. And even if Heimdall doesn’t give a shit about Loki, surely he knows Thor’s going to care if a bunch of earthlings die. So why didn’t Thor tell us about Red Skull? Or this Thanos?”

“Because Thor doesn’t know. He’s never said anything to me about any of this.”

“Do you really think he doesn’t know? When he knew the name of the alien army of Chitauri? When he talks to his father, who wants to give him the throne of Asgard? When he sees Heimdall every day for two years?”

Jane found she could not meet his eyes and dropped her gaze to the floor. “I…..I don’t know.”

“I don’t think we need to decide what Thor knew until we’ve got a better sense of what’s going on, so let’s go ahead with the get Loki part of the plan first,” said Bruce, sketching air quotes around the words with a gesture that matched Tony's movements. “I don’t see why we can’t talk to Loki without Thor around. All we have to do is keep Thor out of this. If anything, that alone might get Loki to trust us. Loki surely remembers that Thor promised to put him back into his cell on Asgard.”

“So we’re agreed that for now Thor's got to stay out of this,” answered Tony. “Jane, is that OK?”

“I told you yes already,” replied Jane.

“Good, because you’re the new keynote speaker from Stark Enterprises at the International Air and Space conference,” said Mari, waving a screen away. “Corporate Relations is readying announcements now. We’re keeping the whole thing vague, so feel free to say what you like.”

Tony snorted, and started pulling up more images and schematics on several of the floating screens. Jane thought she recognized the catacombs from the photographs of Loki’s former lair on earth. “So let’s see how well we can keep all this from Asgard. Loki was building a portal and it looked like Heimdall didn’t know how that worked; at least, he certainly didn’t tell Thor that Loki’s scepter could open the damn thing. If being that deep underground kept Asgard in the dark once, it should still work.....”

“Assuming this hairbrained scheme works,” said Steve. “Aren’t we missing a few steps here? Do we expect Kovacs to kidnap Jane in broad daylight?”

They looked at each other. “Actually, yeah, we probably do,” said Tony. “Red Skull needs Jane to build him a wormhole. For that he’s got to beg, buy or steal. Knowing him, my money’s on steal.”

“But he may start by begging or buying,” added Maria, dismissing the rest of the screens around her. “My guess is that that’s the only reason Hydra hasn’t tried to grab you already is that they know the tech isn’t ready yet. But if we put you in Schmidt’s lap, so to speak – he won’t be able to resist.”

“Seems to me that all this comes down to you,” Sam said to Jane. “We’re going to have to trust you to spot Loki, talk him down, and bring him in.”

“And to you,” said Steve to Sam. “After all, he’s fought with all of us except you. Sam, do you want to be Jane’s special bodyguard?”

“If this Loki is a shape-shifter then I don’t know how I’ll even spot him, let alone manage to bring him in,” replied Sam, “but I’ll do my best.”

“Sam and Steve are right,” said Maria, summoning a different floating array of data; this time Jane thought she recognized the image of Stark’s new building in Seattle. “Not only are you the mortal he’d be most likely to speak with, you’re also the one who knows him best.   We’ll equip you with a tracking device in case Schmidt gets you away from us but you’re probably going to have to speak to any stranger from Kovacs you notice.”

"Multiple tracking devices," added Tony, "including one I think they'll never catch."

Jane listened, but her own thoughts were racing. How had Thor known about the Chitauri, but not known about Thanos? Hadn't he only shown up after Loki was in custody? She trusted him with her life, but he had sworn to obey his father....

“What do we do if Thor shows up, wants to help?” asked Bruce. “He’s still an avenger. And we've needed him to attack Hydra ever since....”

“We show him the door,” answered Tony.

“Even if he wants to hand over his hammer?” asked Maria.

“Still no,” replied Tony, "but, yeah, I gotta admit I'd appreciate a 'maybe later' on that one. Still, until we know we can trust Thor we've got to cut him out. Same goes in London – call my new employees, tell them that."

"What if Darcy wants to tell Thor his brother's alive?" asked Jane.

"She promised me she wouldn't," said Maria, “you were there, remember?”

"She’s on my payroll, isn’t she?” asked Tony. "Maria, remind her that keeping company secrets confidential is part of her job."

"Yeah," objected Bruce, "but this isn't the same as keeping a secret about a snazzy new suit of armor."

"To hell with armor," replied Tony, "it's time to build a robot."

They all looked at him.

"Peace is having a bigger stick than the other guy," Tony told them all, "and right now Thanos -or Red Skull, if he can get hold of whatever Thanos wants in that weapons room - will have the bigger stick. It’s up to me to build one, right? I should be able to do it. I already privatized world peace. Looks like privatizing interstellar peace is next."

And just then it occurred to Jane with brutal clarity why it was quite possible that Thor was innocent of all knowledge of Thanos, his negotiations with Red Skull, and the Titan’s endless plans for war.....

 


	10. Remedied

Darcy is not getting paid enough for this shit.

True, she is getting paid now, by Stark, and even Darcy’s gotta admit that for a selfish rich guy he’s pretty generous. However, look at what she has to deal with. Here’s Erik, who just came here out of rehab or a bar – she’s not sure which, and at this point she doesn’t care – to crash in Jane’s mother’s kitchen to tell her she can’t give Thor drugs. After first taking off his pants.

Now, Darcy’s perfectly willing to admit she had been the one emailing Erik about giving drugs to Thor but now that she had to emergency pack for this stupid totally unnecessary trip to New Mexico because Jane demanded that she test her results _again_ , Erik of course had to turn up here in person, right when she's busy, to tell her just what a bad idea that was.

And so now she had to put up with Erik as well as Ian, who was basically fucking living here too, she should never have allowed him to move in, at the same time she had to figure what, if anything, of Jane’s equipment that she should ship or pack.

It was all Jane's fault. It was Jane who had suggested the plan that got her in this fix. It had been all too easy for Darcy to agree with Jane when Jane had said that it would be too cruel to tell Erik and too unwise to tell Ian that Loki was still alive, and far, far too risky to tell Thor, given that their new boss and his weird friends had to talk to Loki and Thor had told his brother he would put Loki back to the same cell in Asgard (“and you know Thor never breaks his word,” as Jane had reminded them) but then Jane and Maria were jetting off to Starks’ stupid conference so it was very easy for them to say, just don’t tell anyone, because it was Darcy who had to stay here and fucking _deal_ and figure out what she should actually say or do.

“Yes we so do need to,” she told Erik, searching Jane’s equipment list from New Mexico to figure out what else she needed to ship to America, what she could carry with her and what should stay. “I’ve never seen Thor this down.”

At this point, Ian wandered in, beer in hand, and nodded at Erik and Darcy before settling on one of the kitchen chairs. He stretched out his long jeans-clad legs next to Erik’s hairy bare legs and asked no-one in particular, “anything on the telly?”

Both Darcy and Erik ignored him. “Darcy, he’s an alien, you can’t give him human drugs,” said Erik.

“You’re giving drugs to Thor?” asked Ian. “Can I have some?”

“No,” said both Darcy and Erik at the same time.

“What’s this all about, then?”

“Thor’s been so mopey,” explained Darcy. “I think he needs antidepressants.”

Ian considered this. “Bloke seems fine to me. Goes out drinking and everything. Erik, d'you see anything amiss?”

“That’s not the right question. Darcy, it’s dangerous.”

“Why not? We could at least try it. I emailed Clint to ask him if he’d ever thought about taking drugs while Loki was in his head, but he totally lied and said no.”

“Darcy, leave Clint alone. He’s had a god in his head and I wouldn’t recommend it, believe me.”

“He didn’t mind being called. He wanted to know all about everything, even where Jane was going and whatever.”

“So do I, Darcy. All I got was a phone message yesterday saying she had to fly to America and she was leaving tonight.”

“It’s a secret.”

“This have anything to do with SHIELD?” Ian asked, then to Erik: “Want a beer?”

“No, it’s a different secret,” Darcy explained, “and I am not getting paid enough for this shit.” She tried to get back to the equipment lists she was attempting to check on her computer. Trouble was, Jane took care of her own stuff, and Darcy wasn’t sure which pieces of equipment here in London had been taken from New Mexico in the first place and which Jane had cobbled together just to pierce London’s cloudy, light-filled skies.

“Not getting paid enough to keep Jane’s experiments going while she’s in America?” asked Ian, trying to puzzle it out.

“Not getting paid enough to do ninety-five thousand things at the same time,” replied Darcy, exasperated. “Jane’s leaving for America, I’ve got to re-run her experiments to check the results again, and the exact same time Maria emails my boarding passes Tony also wants to know if Thor ever told us what frost giants look like dead. As if.”

“Are you checking her results here, while she’s gone?” asked Erik, bewildered. “Isn’t there too much city light? Jane’s work needs clear skies.”

“Dummy, that’s why I have to fly to America in the first place, I’m supposed to rerun all of her tests in New Mexico. She already has the results, God knows, she wants me to do a do-over.”

“And what’s this about asking Thor about dead frost giants?” demanded Ian. “I thought we weren’t supposed to talk to him about them,” as the sound of the door opening made them all look up.

Thor hung Mjolnir carefully on the coat rack. Darcy thought she had never seen him look so haggard; even his broad shoulders seemed to stoop. “Where is Jane?” he asked them. “I came here to seek her. I must apologize.”

“She’s gone,” replied Erik. “Left for America yesterday.”

“Where?”

He looked from one to the other, and boy, he looks like shit, thought Darcy.

“No idea,” she answered. “Maria came by and said Stark Industries needed her to do something. So she’ll be gone for a few days at least. We work for Tony now, and we need to pay the rent you know.”

“I thought this was her mother’s apartment,” said Ian, watching Thor pour himself a mug of coffee from the coffee pot. “Why do we have to make the rent all of a sudden?”

“I warn you, I made that,” said Darcy, as Thor made a face upon the first sip of her coffee. “Yeah, it is her mother’s apartment. But Erik and Ian and I need to eat and all. I’m aware that Jane doesn’t need to eat – I mean, look at her, she wouldn’t look like that if she ever ate anything – but that doesn’t apply to Erik and Ian and me. Starks pays for us.”

“But Stark has no need of the three of you.” Thor set the coffee cup on the kitchen counter.

“He does too! I’m going to Puente Antiguo.”

“I thought you said it was a secret,” complained Ian.

“It is. For Jane, I mean. But she said I could tell you where I was going.”

Ian looked over at Darcy and asked, “so what about the conference at Oxford then? I thought we were going together.”

“I’m missing it,” Darcy told him, checking her phone. “I have to fly to Puente Antiguo tomorrow because Jane wants to me to take the same readings _again._ ”

“Why?” demanded Thor. He spoke slowly, and there was a gravelly tone to his voice that she thought she had not heard before. “Jane was seeking the Bifrost when first we met. She is more than welcome to travel again upon it to Asgard should she but ask. Is it me she is avoiding?”

“She’s being sciency,” replied Darcy, “she’s trying to build her own.”

“Is that what Stark needs her for?” asked Ian.

"Has she gone to him?" asked Thor.

"What, are you jealous all of a sudden?" Darcy demanded, her general irritation boiling over. She was really, really not getting paid enough for this shit. "Jane's a fucking scientist, O.K.? She has a job, and as part of having a job sometimes she has to travel for work. She's not your loyal retainer or concubine or whatever it is you do on Asgard. Or goat, because that's what people are to you. Jane's a cute goat, I'll give you that, and I’m sure you don't mind slumming for a few decades on earth to be with her, but she's her own goat, so to speak, so please leave her the fuck alone."

"I heard the words that my father spoke on Asgard. He misspoke, and for his evil words I crave your pardon."

"Yeah, well, gaffes reveal what people really think, O.K? Except it wasn't a gaffe - it was his considered opinion."

"But it is not mine."

"O.K., maybe. And my considered opinion is that you're only willing to defend the goats as long as there's a goat you want to fuck. Don't think we haven't noticed how you treat the ones you don't want to fuck, O.K?"

"Darcy, I do not understand. Of what do you speak?"

"Remember how you sent Sif to rescue Jane on Asgard?” In her rage Darcy jumped up, confronting Thor who still stood by the coffee pot. “You couldn't have sent one of the guys, one of the Warriors Three? You know Sif's jealous of Jane. You had to rub her nose in it, that she wasn't worth as much to you as your mortal goat, didn't you? Maybe you didn't think or maybe you were just being cruel, but, either way, not exactly Prince Charming behavior, big guy."

Thor looked taken aback. "I assure you, such was not my intent."

But Darcy was on a roll. "So here's something I've always wondered about: when you stopped Loki from blowing up his own damn home world, did you do that to save Jotunheim? Or did you want to keep Loki from becoming Daddy's darling because he'd managed to destroy the place just like he was supposed to?"

Thor and Erik stared at her, and she had to admit they looked equally horrified. Even Ian looked up in surprise from where he sprawled on the kitchen chair.

Thor was the first to speak. "Can you truly believe that? Neither the Allfather nor I wished to see Jotunheim destroyed. And it was never his home world in any sense of the term. He was of Asgard, and he was my brother."

"Yeah, and why wasn't it his home world the way Vanaheim was Hogun's? You told Hogun he could be with his people," Darcy hissed at him, "but God forbid Loki get anything like the same option. What was he supposed to do, when he was raised to think the only good Jotun was a dead Jotun?"

"Truly you must believe me a monster to think I ever wanted him dead. Truly you must believe I never cared for him, not to understand that to lose him forever would be the worst fate of all. I understand not his madness nor his rebellion against Asgard but that was always what I fought, not him." Even Thor was angry now.

"If that's what you were fighting then you didn't do such a great job of it, did you? Because you never tried to get to the bottom of it and figure out what was going on, did you? Or if you did you sure as hell didn't tell any of the rest of us."

Thor held out his hand, and Mjolnir swung into it, crackling with life. "I have told you and other mortals all I know, again and again. Wherefore do you hold me in such contempt, such suspicion?"

Darcy found herself backing up until she was up against the kitchen table. It was one thing to promise Jane and Maria not to let Thor know and quite another to keep lying to him in the face of his grief and anger. "Well, if you don't know anything useful, why do you keep showing up here looking for a fight?"

"Surrender is not in my nature."

"Yeah, maybe, but fucking everything up sure seems to be. Why can't you just stay out of everyone's way for once? Including Jane's?"

That seemed to have hit home. Thor looked defeated; the wrath faded from his face and the hard line of his mighty shoulders slumped. Presently he held out his hammer, handle foremost, and said, "the metal man wished to test this. I told him no, but if this is all the use that I can be to you you may have it. Or do you wish me to take it to Stark tower? I offer you that as well."

Fuck fuck fuck fuck I couldn't pick that thing up at the best of times and right now I'm lying through my teeth, thought Darcy. "No, Thor, maybe Tony said something like that but right now I know for a fact he's busy, O.K.? Let me make this perfectly clear. We don't need you here, Jane doesn't need you here, Jane doesn't need you in America, the Avengers don't need you in America, nobody has any idea what the fuck SHIELD is even up to anymore, but I'm assuming that if they still exist and they needed you they'd let you know, so look, why don't you go off and make it rain somewhere that needs it, O.K? Because right now, the most useful thing you can be is lost."

If she thought Thor looked hopeless when he came in, that was nothing to the look on his face now. She had seen him when he thought he was trapped on earth forever as a mortal; she had seen him fresh from his grief over his family, and desperate to defeat a triumphant Malakith; never had she seen him as abjectly wretched as he looked right now. I really am breaking his heart, she thought, but fuck it, how else to get him to stay away? It was on the tip of her tongue to soften what she had just said, to add some stupid prattle about Jane really loving him but needing him to stay out of her hair just for the moment, when Ian decided he had to open his mouth and ruin every single thing.

"Hey, why not come to the Oxford shindig with me, then?" Ian sat up and looked at Thor as if he truly meant it. "Darcy can't go -so she says -but I know they'd love to have you. They've got a ton of questions for you. And that Stark fellow had one too -what was it?" He snapped his fingers, trying to spark his memory. "He wanted to know something about dead frost giants, I think.” A thought struck him. “Loki was a frost giant, wasn’t he?”

“ _Ian_ ,” hissed Darcy and Erik together.

“What is it that metal man wishes to know?” asked Thor, gravel in his voice and sorrow in the slump of his mighty shoulders. “I have seen the frost giants dead in the Weapons Vault of Asgard, where they perished in an ill-fated attempt to recover their Casket. And my brother died in my arms.”

“Seems to me,” said Ian, “that maybe Stark wants to know if they looked the same.”

And if looks could kill, Ian would have dropped dead there on the spot from the gaze of Darcy Lewis; but her looks never harmed anyone and in any case Ian was looking at Thor, and Thor was looking back at him, speechless.

Finally Thor said, “They did not. I remember the arm of a dead frost giant blue with a layer of frost upon it; my brother was gray.”

And then he looked around him, taking in the friendly homey kitchen, the worried face of Erik, the puzzled face of Ian, the appalled face of Darcy, the clock on the wall and the coffeepot on the counter, as if he were seeing them for the first time, as if stopped time now started again, as if all the color and light of life had come back into the world. Darcy saw joy appear in his face and frame, as his eyes lit and his body straightened. Presently he squared his broad shoulders and looked them in the eye when he spoke again.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit Jane is going to _kill me_ , thought Darcy.

“My brother is alive, is he not?” and Darcy could hear the change in the timbre of Thor's voice, as she had just seen it in his face and the set of his shoulders. He now stood before them as bright and massive in his joy as he had been broken and belittled in his grief; and even Darcy, frantic as she was, was overawed. God of the sun, she thought, not god of thunder. “And this is what you must not speak of to me ….But I understand,” he said, and his tone softened, even as Mjolnir in his fist crackled with electricity. “You must not tell Thor his brother is alive, because then I will take him back to Asgard where Odin will kill him.   Jane has gone to seek him, has she not? And that is why she would not speak with me, and why I may trouble neither the Avengers nor SHIELD. Therefore I swear this to you this day: you may trust me, and you may tell Jane that I shall never let anyone in Asgard harm my brother again.”

Looking from one to the other, Thor softened his gaze and calmed his voice. “But though you dared not trust me with this happy news, yet I tell you this: only I can control Loki. He hates mortals, and would not help you if he could. But I can force him to render you such aid as you may seek, and compel him to tell you what you wish to know. Will you not tell me where he is?”

Darcy spoke into the silence that followed. “We don’t know. And I’m pretty sure Jane doesn’t know either.”

“It matters not. I can find him,” replied Thor.

“How are you going to do that, mate?” asked Ian.

Thor grinned at them, and Darcy had to admit it had been a long time since she had seen any smile, let alone such a smile, upon his broad face. “There is one of your number who is famous as a spy, is she not? I shall track her down, and between what she knows and what I know of my brother, I swear I shall find him and bring him to you, and make him render the answers you seek.” And with that he stepped swiftly to the door to the terrace, and, with a mighty throw of Mjolnir, was gone.

“Is this true?” demanded Erik. “Darcy, this is terrible.”

Ian shrugged. “Well, we kept the secret, right? I mean, the secret is where Jane went, right?”

Darcy remembered that Ian was the kind of guy who would throw the car keys into a gravitational anomaly. “Jane went to speak at a conference, OK? Anyone can find where Jane went by just googling her name. I mean Maria sent out a PR announcement, which you would know if you weren't an idiot."

“I don’t think Thor surfs the Internet much,” Ian offered, taking another swig of his beer. “Also I don’t see why you think he needs antidepressants. Bloke’s fine, I mean, just look at him. I have no idea what the lot of you are worrying about.”

“Is Jane going to meet Loki?” asked Erik. “Darcy, that’s not just dangerous, that’s suicidal.”

At this point Darcy just about decided that not only does she not get paid enough for this shit, there is really no amount of money anywhere that would be enough to pay her for this shit. “Out, both of you,” she demanded. “Jane is going to kill me! Tony is going to kill me! And Maria is probably going to kill me for good measure! And I still don't even know what I'm supposed to pack!”

“Why?” demanded Erik. “Thor just promised not to hurt Loki, although I do not understand why that matters.”

“Hey, what did I do?” asked Ian. “Thor still don’t know where Jane is, that’s the secret, right? I still think it’s safe as long as Thor doesn’t get on a computer. And he’s not the kind of bloke who even knows how to use one.”

Darcy wanted to put her head down on her laptop keyboard and just cry.

 

 

 

 


	11. Revenge

“It’s not that nobody talks to me. SHIELD talked to me all the time. Especially that slimy Sitwell. I think he even thought I was his buddy or something,” Clint complained bitterly. “It was always, How’re you doing buddy? How’s target practice? like he cared.”

“I expect he did care,”observed Natasha, “although only in a professional capacity. Would you prefer everyone to stop talking to you?”

“I’d prefer them not to lie. No missions, or so they say. No alien sightings. I’m not benched, there’s just nothing happening.   That isn’t true, is it?”

“Well, we were infiltrated for sixty years by Hydra. It was a little hard for SHIELD to continue in an institutional capacity after that.” Natasha was silent for a moment; then she said, “Jane is going to be keynote speaker for a conference in Seattle.”

“Meaning what?”

“A little corporate espionage, maybe.”

“New job, Nat?” Clint smiled. “You looked really fetching in that white shirt as Natalie. I envy the bastards. Before I pity them, of course.”

But Natasha only shook her head. “Not me. Jane, and only for a day. Ostensibly it’s a press event where Stark presents some research. They're planning a security detail for Jane, who’s been added at the last minute.”

“Jane? Thor’s girl? She’s no spy.”

“Yes, but she is something none of the rest of us are, a real scientist. Stark harbors a suspicion that Kovacs is intending to build a real Einstein-Rosen bridge ahead of Jane and her team.”

“That’s impossible.”

“That’s what I’d say, but I’m not the one making the call.”

“Who’s going as protection?”

“Cap and Sam. Tony’s speaking. So’s Bruce, although I can’t imagine what he has to say.”

“Thor?”

“Nothing in the announcement.” Natasha shrugged. “Maybe they think he attracts too much attention. He is an actual alien, after all.”

They were quiet for a bit; then Natasha added, “It might not be too well received if you turn up.”

“Are you afraid they’ll blame you? Don’t worry, they won’t see me. If there’s nothing, then there’ll be nothing. If not, they need to know I’m still good for something.”

“Who’s they?” Natasha asked, after a bit. “Are you trying to get Stark to hire you?”

“I guess so,” replied Clint. “I’m probably too compromised for anyone else. Alien mind control doesn’t look that good as a resume item. Also not too many people need a bow and arrow.”

“Why do you think Stark does, then?”

“We have the same score to settle.”

“Don’t do anything heroic,” said Natasha seriously, and she jumped down the few feet to the roof. Looking up at Clint Barton still framed against the sky, his legs kicking in the air, she said, “Are you sure you never saw Loki change into anyone else?”

“I swear to you, Nat, that if I had I would remember it. The bastard fucked with my head but not my memory. Fucking Sitwell asked me that so many times already, why do you even want to know?”

Natasha pursed her lips, and took a minute to reply. “If he can, we were wondering what signs there are that he's doing so. That’s all.”

“How do we even know he can look like a human?”

“Thor saw him become Cap. Voice, shield, the works. Just for kicks, Thor says, it was obviously Loki all along.”

“Too fucking weird.” Clint straightened and jumped, landing beside her with bent knees. He stood up and sighed. “But no, I never saw anything like that.”

“Maybe you should ask Thor?” suggested Natasha. “You two might have something to talk about.”

“Sure, next time I run elbows with him at some snazzy black tie event, I’ll make sure to talk to him about it. After all, I’m in and out of London and all the other capitols of European constantly in the course of my jet set lifestyle, aren’t I?”

“I'm sure it wouldn’t be that easy,” she deadpanned, and then suddenly she was quite serious. “Because he’s coming here. You could stick around for a bit.”

Clint looked at her.

“Just a suggestion.”


	12. Reconnaissance

Their last scheduled rendezvous after Jane’s speech occurred beneath the enormous blown glass chandelier in the four-story-high glass atrium.

Maria could not have picked a better place to linger, Jane had to admit. Above her, giant glass flowers burst in a riot of color over the floating stairs that climbed to the hotel lobby on one side and down to the conference rooms and lobby on the other. Before her, a wide curtain wall of glass framed downtown Seattle; beyond the buildings and the raised highway at the waters' edge, lay the great sea, dark now and still under the slanting late afternoon sun and the brilliant blue sky. If she turned, behind her she could look down into the milling crowd that surged in and out of the wide conference room doors, or up to the still sunlit lobby, where another glass wall opened onto a narrow street that led down to the raised highway and the sea. Between the view and the visibility, the landing -- itself as wide as a room -- was an easy place for anyone to stop and watch (or be found) before entering the conference center or going up into the hotel.

Tony appeared first, wearing a very expensive coat and tie and a pair of red-tinted sunglasses, checking his phone. Jane stalked up to him in the pumps that Maria had given her for the occasion and her slightly down-at-heel “good suit,” the one she saved for appearances, with a white silk blouse featuring a floppy bow tie at the neck that she had bought in 2000 and which looked as if she had bought it in 1985. Below them, waiters decorously offered buttered toast with Pacific salmon and roasted chanterelles to the conference attendees who had just heard her speak, while bartenders served drinks from a circular free-standing bar festooned with flowers that matched the brilliant shades of the chandelier.

“This is awesome,” Jane told him, giddy over her flute of Prosecco. “People are taking me seriously. I was amazed at the questions. ”

Tony just grunted. “Actually, when were you going to tell us? We had no idea you were so close.”

“I’m not, the mechanics are impossible. It feels like cold fusion – the working prototype is always fifteen years away.”

“I’m the mechanic, remember, maybe you should talk to me about that one of these days? You know, when Maria drops off a check? By the way, how’s the earring?”

“It’s an earring. I've worn them before."

Tony shrugged. “Just wanted to know how it felt. We haven’t even tested it yet, new theory of mine.”

“I don’t know,” replied Bruce, shambling up, and still managing to look unkempt even though his suit was newer and more expensive-looking than Jane's; she guessed it had been a present from Stark.   “I think I’m more in favor of testing things thoroughly beforehand than I used to be. You never know what can go wrong. “

“We’re getting off target,” answered Steve. Captain America’s beige suit, new, traditionally tailored, and pressed to a military precision, concealed neither his height nor his biceps. “In about half an hour the whole thing is over. No sign of Schmidt. What do we do if he’s a no-show?”

“Well, it might be a good idea to wait and see what happens when everyone leaves,” said Sam, sharpest of them all in a beautifully cut navy suit that probably cost the least of any of their clothes but looked the best. “They couldn’t very well snatch her until after Jane delivered the closing. The clock is ticking but it just started.”

“Mingle for the half hour, stay on alert,” said Maria, crisp in a discreet blue coat dress. “Jane leaves only when this space is empty. All the hotel cameras are on, along with a few more we’ve installed. Jane’s wearing three different trackers, including one in each heel. Bruce will be outside talking to me as she comes out; Cap and Sam will go before her and Tony can bring up the rear. Keep her in sight at all times.”

“Hey, is Natasha coming?” Jane asked Tony. “No-one is better at this than her.”

“No she is not,” said Tony. “I've got a policy against rehiring employees I've personally fired. Earpiece working?”

“It’s fine. Anyone guarding my equipment in Puente Antiguo? Just in case we’re wrong, and Schmidt decides to simply steal my stuff, SHIELD-style?”

“For the record SHIELD never stole or damaged any of your equipment.,” answered Maria. “And Colonel Rhodes is in New Mexico. With the suit. Anything happens Iron Patriot will fly in to save the day.   Now mingle, OK?”

Jane mingled. This turned out better than she had expected, for everyone who wanted to talk to her actually wanted to talk about what she wanted to talk about, to the point where she was sorry to realize that the hotel ushers were shooing people up the staircase and out the door.

By the time she drifted out onto the sidewalk in front of the hotel’s convention center, she had had two glasses of prosecco, felt as if she’d just solved the Yang-Mills mass-gap problem, and had in fact enjoyed her first party ever. Without quite forgetting about it, she was no longer thinking that the purpose of the conference had not been to put out her results, take questions, and celebrate her research, but to lure the Red Skull into an open attack and thus force Loki to reveal himself. She had long since lost track of Steve, Bruce, and Sam, although Tony’s gift for being the center of attention meant that neither she nor anyone else could possibly miss him. At the moment he was standing to her left, also on the sloping sidewalk immediately outside the hotel, at the center of mass of reporters. More of them kept passing her, heading for him.

It was still broad daylight at 6:00pm, and the air was both warm and crisp. “What a lovely day,” she said to no-one in particular.

“Typical for Seattle in July,” said the swarthy man next to her. She read his name tag, which identified him as an engineer from the Kovaks corporation, and belatedly remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

“You work here?” she said. “I mean, here in Seattle? For Kovacs?”

He nodded. Jane bubbled on. “Where’s the best view of the sunset in Seattle? Just curious. I know it won’t be for a few hours, but the conference is over and my time is my own,” and she smiled at him.

While he appeared to be considering this, a black Impala with a number in the window eased up to the curb next to him. Her new friend looked at her, and said, “This is my car and I was just going to go back to the office, but I’ll show you if you like.”

It was now or never. She nodded. He leaned forward, opened the car door, and with a gentle hand under her arm, helped her into the car. Between the unfamiliar heels and the unfamiliar Prosecco, she let him.

The moment her head was inside she felt herself grabbed, a gag was wrapped around her mouth, and a black hood was pulled over her face. The car seemed to be full of people. She wanted to say “OK I think we found them” into the microphone clipped to her suit collar but it was already gone, along with her earpiece, her bag, and, after a few moments as the driver sped away, her shoes. However, she felt no tugs on her left earring.   So there’s that, she thought.

Her captors said nothing and with the gag she could not speak, so she ceased to struggle and simply lay still, listening to the breathing of the men around her as the car took a twisting and turning route to their destination. Her captors did not speak, either to each other or to her, and it was at least half an hour, maybe more, before she heard the wheels crunching a gravel drive.

She heard the car door open. The hands holding her arms – one on each side of her – tightened, and she found herself being pulled barefoot out onto the gravel drive. The hood came off, but they left the gag in.

She stood in what seemed to be a private court before what could be a private house, but an enormous one – the closed heavily gabled double wooden front doors were at least twelve feet tall, the walls on either wide and behind them concealed by a dense vine covered with white, sweet-smelling flowers.   On either side she could see the trees surrounding the rectangular wooden modern building, their shadows deepening in the hour before sunset.

The guard gripping her right arm still wore his Kovaks corporation name tag; she saw the white square twist as he suddenly loosened his grip, crumpling, clutching for the arrow that protruded from his neck. The other guard holding her other arm fell in exactly the same way a moment later. The driver of the car had barely time to spin on his heel and raise his gun before he staggered and collapsed, yet another feathered arrow protruding from his throat. Her hands free, she pulled the gag out of her mouth.

Clint, black-clad in full SHIELD regalia, jumped off the roof of the building. Sprinting to her side he leaned over the open car, briefly rummaged through it, and pulled out her shoes, each heel gouged open. “Put these on,” he said, turning toward where the graveled driveway disappeared around the house, "and follow me."

“Loki,” Jane cried, grabbing his arm, “wait, I need to talk to you.”

“Jane, it’s me, Clint,” he replied, “and we both need to out of here.”

But Jane clung for dear life. “Loki, SHIELD’s gone, nobody’s wearing that anymore, knock it off, will you? This is important, we have to talk to you.”

“Get your shoes on,” he urged her, “we may need to run.”

Still clinging to his arm, she slipped on each of the pumps and stood up. The gouged-out heels were a little wobbly but she could walk.

And then thunder rang out of the clear blue sky above them.

They both looked up, and Jane started to swear. Clint looked at her, startled, as she yelled, “I didn’t tell Thor about this! He’s not taking you back to Asgard, though, I won't let him. Just get out, right now, Loki, and I’ll handle Thor.”

From inside the house she could hear voices yelling. Clint tried to pull her after him again. “We must go,” he insisted.

More thunder rolled out from a clear blue sky, drowning out the voices she could now clearly hear yelling on the other side of the great wooden doors.

“Listen, I really really didn’t tell Thor about you,” said Jane, “I swear to God everyone knew not to tell him. Especially me.”

“Jane, it’s me, Clint, and what really matters it that we need to get out of here right now.”

“No, what really matters is that Maria really needs to talk to you. Also Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner! Go now, get out of here, go to Stark industries,” but wait, they were here in Seattle, what was the address here? Realizing she had no idea, she said, “just, check in anywhere, ask to speak to Darcy in New Mexico, she works for Tony Stark now. She’ll tell you what’s what. I’ll be fine, you know that.”

“The tracking devices were in your shoes. Both were destroyed and thrown away miles ago. No-one knows you’re here. Come,” and he tried to pull her along.

“There’s another in my earring,” she panted, “also all this is planned, believe me, we’re not afraid of Red Skull, I’m just bait so we could talk to you.” He stared at her, and she continued, “Look, we can’t afford to have Thor haul you back to Asgard any more than you can want to go,” which surely made enough sense.

Yet still he hesitated, as the sudden storm billowed up, dimming the sky, just as the yelling within the doors seemed to come closer.

“Well I’m not going to stand here waiting for your damn brother,” she cried, as she heard a crack of thunder right overhead. As the light around her darkened with the roiling clouds of the fastest incoming storm she had ever seen, she let go of his arm, dashed for the immense doors and just pushed on one of them. It gave way before her so quickly that she fell headlong, sprawling onto a thick wool carpet. Sitting up she turned, and through the open, closing door she saw the figure of the false Barton shimmer around the edges as it vanished, as the arrows in the three men lying in the driveway shrunk down into knives, as the sudden downpour began, as the huge heavy door swung shut and clicked in the lock.  


	13. Restoration

Maria Hill jumped out of the car, phone to her ear, just as she heard Tony say, “I think I found her.”

“Where?” she demanded as she strode toward the glass doors of Stark Seattle.

“Took her right to the house – CEO’s residence. Sam and I can get there in five.”

“Drone coverage?”

“Two minutes.”

“Video feed?”

“Two _minutes_.”

She was suddenly aware of an obstacle – a homeless man, shambling in a huge hoodie, gurgling something that might have been “please pretty lady.” She reached into her purse without breaking stride, found her wallet, fished out a bill and pressed it at him without looking at it. Ahead of her loomed the new headquarters of Stark Seattle, all curving glass and gleaming metal in the late afternoon sun, and for a moment she wondered if Tony had hired Frank Geary to design it, before she remembered that, in fact, he had. She went through the glass doors at the same pace, security waiving her past the open turnstile.

“Weapons?”

“We’re not sure. Drones check first. If they don’t see anything we can’t handle we go in.”

Waiting for the elevator she noticed a janitor pushing a mop toward her. In the middle of the day? She took a second look at him, phone still pressed to her ear, as he shuffled up to her, hand on the mop, wearing the same hoodie.

She hung up on Tony and put the phone in her purse. “Nick?” she asked, staring at him.

He sighed, pushed back the hoodie, and took off his sunglasses. “And here I was hoping to get away with a joke about a glitch in the matrix.”

“I’d know you anywhere, Nick, if I were paying attention,” she told him crisply as the elevator doors opened. “But right now we both have better things to worry about. Video feed’s in the war room, get in.”

He leaned the mop against the corridor wall and joined her in the elevator. As it descended to the lower level he took off the hoodie, revealing a black jacket over a cream shirt with a mandarin collar. “So what’s the situation?”

“Red Skull snatched Jane from the Stark conference.”

“In front of everyone?”

“No, it was planned. Jane’s the bait.”

“For Schmidt. That sounds risky. We sure it’s him?”

“Yes, we’re sure.”

The elevator doors opened and Hill led Nick Fury to the subterranean war room, where a click of her phone filled the far wall with a with video image of the house Jarvis had identified. “But Jane’s not the bait for Schmidt. She’s the bait for Loki.”

“ _Loki_?”

This time it was Maria’s term to sigh. “Yes. Loki. We learned something that kind of changes the situation.” She clicked a button on her phone. The still video image of the modern house in Laurelhurst faded to show Red Skull and a robot Zola in the basement of the Columbia lab. “This was recorded the day after the Chitauri invasion, although we saw it for the first time only two weeks ago.”

Fury, to his credit, took the image in stride. “So Loki was working with Red Skull all along. I gotta give you credit, Hill, you guessed as much.”

She shook her head, and started the video. “More than that, even. Watch this, I’ll keep track of Stark’s done feeds in my office. It’s not what we thought.”

“Did Loki throw the fight? You always suspected that."

“In a way, but amazingly enough that’s the least of it. We still need to ask him about that, I think. Red Skull was working with a creature called Thanos and they were going to destroy half the planet. Loki took it away from them and _then_ he threw the fight, if he did. However, this Thanos is still out there, and so is Schmidt.”

"And we're sure Loki's still alive, and here on earth."

"Not sure but we have every reason to think so."

“So why is Loki working with Red Skull now?”

“He isn’t. That’s why Jane’s bait. We think he might talk to her.”

“But he’s hanging around Schmidt.”

“It's just a guess, but we’re hoping he’ll come out of the woodwork to keep Hydra from hurting Jane."

"So Loki's on the side of the angels now? Excuse me?"

"Apparently so.  Remember all the contradictions we were trying to figure out?  The fake Hydra speeches?  The fact he didn't use any of his magic?  The way he showed up at the NASA dark energy lab looking beaten to a pulp?"

"You're kidding."

"I wish.  The real problem is that we've got bigger threats out there.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to see if I can keep Tony out of trouble."

She handed him her phone as if it were a remote.

"I’ll be in my office if you need me. Let me know if anyone calls.”


	14. Recapture

Jane gained her feet, and looked around her. Her right heel was wobbly and her left felt as if it would come off if she leaned on it wrong, but she could walk.

Before her stretched a long, narrow, richly carpeted hall, all dark wood and crimson carpet, with a row of closed doors on her left and a wall of windows to her right. The voices she had heard yelling earlier had ceased, and the entire building seemed to be silent and empty.

Everything beyond the windows was green, for a narrow lawn bordered by a very tall green hedge that seemed to run the length of the hallway, if not the building, was all that she could see to her right. The light, already darkened by the fresh storm, was further limited by the deep crimson carpet and the dark ceiling, invisible somewhere above a long row of square wooden unlit hanging lamps.

Far ahead of her the hallway ended in a pair of immense closed wooden doors very similar to the ones through which she had just hurtled herself.

She tried to reopen the door through which she had just come but she had not been mistaken with the click: it was locked. She immediately tried the first door on her left along the long hallway; it, too, was locked, as was the second and the third. Nor could she open any of the windows that faced the narrow strip of lawn and the blind green hedge.

Feeling both foolish and fearful, and hoping that Loki had managed to get away in time, she limped down the long hall, testing each door on her left as she went and finding them all locked. She noticed that in between each locked door there seemed to be some kind of Tibetan or Chinese thangkas hung on the ivory walls between the dark doors; although every one was different, all were rich and beautiful. Each painting was unscrolled to display an image of a single brightly colored demon – red, purple, orange, crimson – alone against a brilliant background, surrounded by stylized decorations. She saw no-one and heard nothing, as the rain ceased to pound on the windows and the hedge beyond the window brightened to a fresher green in the wake of the artificial storm.

Ahead of her, as she came closer to them, the wide pair of wooden doors marking the end of the long hall gradually and soundlessly open to a sunlit room beyond.

Terrified, but feeling as if she had no choice, she stepped across the threshold and looked around her, letting her eyes adjust to the sudden light after the long dim hall.

She stood in a large, high-ceilinged room, carpeted in the same deep red as the hall and sumptuously furnished in mahogany. The first thing that caught her eye was the view: facing her, across the room, the far wall was nothing but a series of glassed arches opening onto a magnificent lawn, green as an emerald in the golden light, wider than the building, and sloping down to water - a lake or a sound; on the other bank, more than a mile away, a hill with the little roofs and walls of houses, behind it another hill covered with an indistinct blanket of pine.

She recognized all this because the sky was clearing as she watched, the last of the dark clouds rolling away as quickly as they had come. In their place the west hedge lining the lawn was casting long shadows across the grass.

The second thing that she saw was a man sitting behind an enormous mahogany desk facing her, with his back to the wall of glass, his face toward her, quietly reading something on a small glowing tablet. He did not seem to notice her; at least, he did not seem to react to her presence.

She looked for an exit and saw none. The dark walls on either side were lined with more ornate furniture, including two large Japanese screens, one on each side, softly shimmering in the yellow light that filled the room. Possibly they concealed doors. She started towards the one on the left, and the man looked up.

“Jane Foster,” he said, “how nice of you to join me,” and standing up behind the desk he held out his right hand.

Behind her she felt rather than saw the doors through which she had just come close as silently as they had opened, save for the click they made when the lock engaged.

Not knowing what else to do, she wobbled across the room toward him. Even with the light behind him, his face looked somehow familiar: tall, sharp-featured, dark-haired, intelligent looking.* “You know me,” she said.

“Yes,” he replied. “Johann Schmidt, at your service. Please be seated; we have much to discuss,” and he gestured to a low-backed mahogany chair placed in front of the desk that she had not noticed before.

She sat; he did as well. The desk was empty of everything save a bronze lamp, the tablet (now dark) that Schmidt had put down, and what looked like a circular, ornate bronze paperweight. Looking closer, she saw that it seemed to be a model of a bronze octopus, except that she could not quite tell what the octopus was clutching with its limbs. With a slight shock she realized that it wrapped a bronze skull.

“Are you running West Coast Hydra now or something?” she demanded.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place,” he replied, as if he were discussing the weather. She had to admit that he had a handsome smile.

“Why did you kidnap me?”

Schmidt shrugged. “I believe you invited yourself into that car,” he replied. He steepled his hands and looked her straight in the eye. “But I admit I appreciate this chance to speak to you.”

“About what?” she demanded.

“About employment opportunities in my organization. Or funding opportunities,” he amended hastily, for she looked at him as if she wanted to throw the bronze paperweight at him.

“My friends know I’m here. They’ll be here very soon, and you’ll be sorry.” And would Thor come as well, or was he too busy chasing down his brother?

“I am aware of that. You are not my prisoner; you may leave at any time.”

“How? Through the roof?” Maybe it was more important to Thor to get Loki back to Asgard in chains than to help them defeat Hydra. Maybe catching Loki had always been more important to Asgard than helping the humans, more important than helping her.

Schmidt sighed. “No, through the front door, which will open for you just as soon as you give me five minutes of your time.”

“Your five minutes start now, mister.”   Did her friends think she had betrayed them all to Thor? Certainly they could not have missed the impossibly sudden thunderstorm. “And if you ever think you’re going to get me to say ‘Hail Hydra,’ you have got to be kidding."

Schmidt spread his hands. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the light she could see the little seams that held the false, human face on over his red skull. “Nothing so vulgar, I assure you. Simply that I am prepared to offer you more money and better laboratory equipment than whatever it is that you are currently receiving from SHIELD.”

“There is no more SHIELD, you idiot. Stark funds my research and they’re more than generous.” Shit, should she have told him that? She was no spy. She had no idea what she should or shouldn’t say. “And even if they weren’t you should have found out by now that I designed and built most of my equipment myself. On a shoestring. I don’t need their money and I certainly don’t need yours.” 

"Even in light of what you have discovered?" Seeing that she looked nonplussed, he added, "You may not have been aware but I am certain that now, thanks to what you revealed today, you are in the running for the Nobel Prize in Physics." He smiled. "I have no doubt you will now received many offers to fund your research. However, I believe that in the end ours will prove the most attractive." 

Nobel Prize? Holy shit...Stupid girl, stupid girl, try to stall him, you fool, he's just fucking with you. She let her tone soften. "I'm still not interested, sorry. But I must admit that you’ve got a pretty nice spread here.”

“Designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, I believe. A conscientious objector imprisoned for his beliefs during the war.” He smiled again. With a start she realized he must be talking about World War II. “I admit it suits me. In more ways than one.” He leaned forward. “If you do not need funds for your research, perhaps you would not be adverse to living in a style that you might find more comfortable?”

She shook her head. “I’m perfectly happy living out of a trailer. But what are you, here, planning to do with this West Coast Hydra thing?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that at the moment,” and his tone sounded truly apologetic. “But I can tell you that if you feel you have no need of our resources for your research, then perhaps for defensive purposes? For perhaps you would like to be able to pursue whatever interests drive you, regardless of any outside interference."

"What outside influence?" she demanded. "SHIELD? They gave it all back, and then they gave me funding. Try again." Although only because Thor intervened, she remembered miserably. What was he thinking now? More to the point, what was he doing right now?

"Please. No-one troubled you earlier because no-one expected you to succeed.” He leaned forward. “You have been to Asgard yourself …. Have you not?”

“Yes,” she replied, most unwillingly. How had he uncovered that? “But it was under the most extraordinary circumstances. Asgard was under attack from the Dark Elves.”

He said nothing; merely listened intently. Where, oh where, were her friends? Even if they’d gotten into a fight with Thor, surely he’d stop if they explained they had to rescue her.

“I mean, I was under attack from the Aether, Thor had to save me. And then we didn’t leave by the Bifrost. Odin ordered the Bifrost closed, but it turned out that was because it operates Asgard’s defenses.” Red Skull nodded, encouraging her to continue. “Heimdall turns them on, but Kurst in the palace turned them off. And then the Dark Elves could conceal their ships – even Heimdall couldn’t see them.”

“Could you?” he asked.

“Just fine, when they were in Greenwich,” she answered. It finally occurred to her that she might be telling him too much, but there could be no harm in telling him about what had been in the news, so she merely said, “Thor magicked their ships to Svartalfheim, don’t ask me how, and anyway I’m sure it only happened because of the Convergence. I have no idea whether they’re visible there.”

Johann Schmidt smiled at her as if she had just told him something absurdly wonderful, and then gently said, “But it didn’t matter to you that the Bifrost was closed, since you could get in and out of Asgard using your own equipment.”

It was her turn to smile. “Oh, no, it was the Bifrost that got me there – Heimdall brought me in against Odin’s wishes. And only the fact the Convergence opened the paths between the worlds got us out. My own equipment is nowhere near ready, and probably can’t even be built at all. Start’s little conference is just BS.” She grinned at him. Take that, asshole.

But Johann Schmidt merely contemplated her with that smile. “Against Odin’s wishes. In Asgard itself.”

She said nothing.

Schmidt continued. “I have been in other realms since I was first transported by the Tesseract in 1945. And I do not know if this is spoken of in Asgard, but there are many across the nine realms who wish to act against Odin’s wishes. It is very interesting to me to hear that there are those who will disobey Odin within Asgard itself.”

“Only because they love the crown prince, Thor. He commands the loyalty of Asgard – and, I dare say, the nine realms as well,” Jane shot back. “They’ve seen him fight.”

As have I, she thought glumly. Had he managed to grab Loki? And even if her friends had talked Thor out of fighting, was Loki fighting all of them, in the belief that everyone wanted him back in his cell forever?

Schmidt was still smiling. “And, it is clear, they have seen him fail. And even if they had not, there are many who cannot fight with him as long as Odin is King of Asgard. But let us return to my offer. You have now seen the Bifrost in action; have you had a chance to examine it? Although you claim your designs cannot be built, you need merely reverse engineer it, do you not?”

“Come on, it’s alien tech. I don’t even have the beginning of the kind of knowledge that builds that sort of thing.” Where, oh were, were her friends? Unless the earring didn’t work. Stark always said that his tech worked, but he had to be wrong sometime.  

“Still, you are much closer than anyone else has ever been. And now that everyone knows aliens and humans can travel between worlds, you may find the circumstances of your research ….changed.”

“Is that a threat?” demanded Jane.

“Not at all, merely a statement of fact. Given that it is a fact, you should not be surprised should your research attract attention. Unwanted attention. I would like to make you aware of our defensive capabilities,” the man behind the desk stated, not taking his eyes off her.

Far behind him, beyond the wide windows, she saw a man with wings swoop into view, dark and distant against the clear sky. Don’t move, she told herself, don’t react, don’t let what you see show in your face. Shit, I wish I were Natasha, I’m a terribly spy.

“There is no location that Hydra cannot defend. We will not require you to work in isolated facilities or consult in remote locations such as Tronso, as I believe SHIELD has sought you to do from time to time.”

Gouts of flame, brilliant as fireworks, shattered the peace of the sunlit day. Sam wheeled and swerved, but the bursts of vivid fire followed him as he arced through the sky. Trying to keep her face as calm as Schmidt’s, she said, “I didn’t pick Puente Antiguo because it was cheap, I chose to work there because it was as far from light pollution and cloud cover as I could get.”

“And your lab facilities in London?” Schmidt smiled again. “For your co-workers, if not for yourself? With us as your sponsor, you will be free to conduct whatever research you wish, wherever you wish, with no worries about cost nor any thought of interference.”

Was Sam hit? He seemed to be in freefall, tumbling end over end, but then he also seemed to regain control just before he hit the ground and managed to fly, veering drunkenly out of sight to the left. She forced herself to sit quietly on the mahogany chair and to gaze unwavering at Schmidt. “I went to England only because Erik said he was on to something and he wanted me to take a look. I didn’t set up a proper lab immediately because I couldn’t get in touch with him.”

“Still, would you not prefer to know that you had a workspace waiting for you, customized to your specifications, in any city where your presence might be required? And perfectly safe from any form of interference.”

Gold flashed across the open sky behind him. Iron man banked, righted himself, and the repulsors in his palms blasted something beyond her range of vision.

Apparently oblivious, Schmidt spread his hands wide. “Right now Stark Industries is funding your research, and I admit they are generous. But that funding, you will admit, is dependent upon the whim – and the mortality -- of one man.”  

The next weapon to fire did not belch red flame. Instead an invisible pulse of some kind sent Tony spinning in the bright air, until, like Sam, he spiraled out of her line of sight.

“Those of us who hail Hydra share a vision – one that even you admit has lasted more than seventy years. Your science supports that vision. I seek only the honor and privilege of supporting your science.”

“It’s all about firepower and money with you guys,” she hissed at him. “Like I’ve got to be impressed because you have the biggest guns in the world. Like I’m sure to want to get into your secret hidden fortress. You love order over at Hydra, but, my god, have you ever for five seconds valued cooperation? Do you think I don’t want to work with you because I doubt that you’re rich, or that you’ve got a shitton of weapons, or even that you’re smart? I don’t care what you say about my work. I don’t want to work with you because your only interest in opening the way between the worlds is war.”

“Hydra believes in order, and war is disorder,” replied Schmidt, but his tone was quieter.

“Yeah, but the more disorder you have, the more you need the people who can maintain order,” replied Jane. “Huge incentive to create disorder right there, it seems to me.”

“Order is not just power,” replied Schmidt. “Order in the end can only be based upon justice. Does it not matter to you that power be wielded in the service of justice?”

This time no weapons fired, visible or invisible, at either the figure in red and silver or the one in green and rusted gold, as she saw Thor toss Loki (now in his own form) onto the lawn beyond the windows. To her horror she saw Thor take out a great pair of bronze handcuffs, and, leaning down to scruff an unresisting Loki, yank his brother to his feet and single-handedly cuff him. Loki looked weary and amused, but Thor was smiling; she could hear their voices, too indistinct to make out individual words.

“For justice requires order. The crudest form of control – lock up the malefactors, throw away the key – is not to your liking, is it? Especially when the malefactors are but scapegoats for the evil desires of those who command solely for their own benefit. And yet that seems to be the style of your new friends. I think you do not like that any more than we do.”

She found she could not answer. Schmidt leaned forward, pressing his advantage. “And how much influence do you have with them, really? They claim to respect you, and to honor your work, but do they listen to you? Do they turn to you for advice, or just to Erik? They speak of the Foster theory, yet it was not you they called upon when they needed a scientist to analyze the Tesseract. If you think you cannot copy the Bifrost, would you like to understand the Tesseract and study its mechanism? Did they even give you a chance to examine it? I think that if you have any doubts about your friends, you should consider our offer.”

She hesitated, at a loss for any kind of answer.

He smiled, and his smile made her want to scream.

At that moment she heard glass shatter, and looked up to see Captain America, curled up behind his shield, drop on the carpet beside them in a pool of glass shards. In an instant all three were on their feet, Schmidt with a weapon out: a pistol, pointed straight at her head.

“Move, and the girl dies,” he snarled at Steve; but he was looking at Steve, and not at her.

She picked up the bronze octopus paperweight and threw it at Red Skull’s head as hard as she could.

It hit his temple, and she saw a streak of unnatural red where it broke his false skin. He staggered, firing, but the shot went wide. A second later he crumpled, Cap’s shield cutting another vivid red gash through his fake dark hair.

Slinging his shield back on his arm Steve yelled “Go! Behind you!” as she heard more glass shatter. Turning her head she saw that Iron Man had just cut a nice door-sized square out of another window and was beckoning to her over its broken fragments.

She ran then – out the window, fighting off Iron Man who tried to grab her, down the wide sloping lawn to Thor and Loki, until the broken heel came off altogether and she found herself flying, then rolling down the hill, as undignified as she had been falling down that mountain in Svarthelfheim. Pulling herself to her feet she grabbed a clod of earth that her hand had happened to land on and threw it at Thor, yelling, “Stop! Stop at once!” as she limped toward them, one shoe completely gone.

“Brother, what’s with your mortal?” asked Loki.

Still holding Loki’s cuffed hands with his right hand, Thor clapped Loki on the neck with his left and beamed at his brother as if he were truly glad to see him. “Have no fear, Jane,” said Thor, still smiling at his brother, “I am not here to take Loki back to Asgard, and I have told him as much.”

“I will never speak to you again if you do!” The lawn was more level now, she was almost there.

“Thank you,” said Loki.

“Now take those handcuffs off of him at once!” She was panting.

“Thank you again,” said Loki.

“But you must stop doing what you are doing to us,” admonished Thor, one hand still on his brother’s neck.

“What I do to you,” said Loki, holding out his cuffed hands.

“We need to get out of here ASAP, or we’re all going to get fried,” said Sam, landing beside them and folding his wings. Then he stopped, listening to his earpiece.

“Yep,” added Tony, burning the grass as he landed. He popped open the visor of his suit. “Thor, what the fuck are you doing here? Jane, is this your way of keeping a promise?"

"It is not. Thor, how did you get here? Lemme guess, Darcy, I knew there had to be a reason she wasn’t returning my calls. Have you been fighting everyone?" She had now closed the distance between them.

"Later," snapped Tony. "Jane, remember our plan? I’m supposed to fly you out?”

“That was at the stupid hotel. You were AWOL when they put me in the car. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You got in that car yourself, I saw you, what was I supposed to do, I was surrounded by a pack of reporters.”

“The mortals need you to speak to them,” Thor said to his brother.

“About what?” demanded Loki.

“They will not tell me,” answered his brother, “they do not trust me.”

Loki stared. “How is that possible?”

Behind them, they heard the rattle of automatic weapons, the roar of the Hulk, and an indeterminate soft swoosh that could be anything. Bits of black smoke began to puff behind the house, marring the deepening blue of the late afternoon sky.

“It’s a long story, but, yeah, we really do need to talk to you and not to Thor,” said Sam to Loki. “Just not here. Steve tells me he’s getting some intel out of Schmidt up there, but doesn’t think he can hold him for much longer – or that the Hulk can keep all his men busy -- and we don’t have the backup or the authority to take him in. We need to move.”

“Sam’s right,” said Tony. “Thor, get lost. We’ll handle Loki. I’ll take Jane and Sam can help Cap.”

“No,” said Jane to Thor, “first we let Loki go. You agreed.”

“Thor, your archer,” said Loki, and a second later swayed to his knees, an arrow in his left eye; only Thor’s grip on his wrists kept him from falling over.

Jane looked up to see Clint Barton – evidently the real one this time – on the flat roof, nocking another arrow into his bow.

Thor yanked Loki to his feet, thrust his blond face before the ruined eye weeping blood, and said, “Tell them what they want to know, Loki.”

“The man in the house is the same Red Skull that fought the Captain years ago,” gasped Loki, “he assembled and led the Chitauri army until I took it away from him. He must have come to Earth while the portal was open. He still wants vengeance against the nations who were allied against his during your great war. I do not know the details of his plans. Thor, why do your mortals always quarrel with each other so much?”

“That is none of your concern,” growled Thor; but he reached forward and with a quick twist unlocked the cuffs from his brother’s hands. Loki staggered, gasped, and faded into a glimmering mirage of green and gold.

“We already knew all that,” complained Tony. “Thor, buddy, you just fucked everything up. Where’d he go? Holy shit, do we have to do this all over again?”

“I know not what you mean,” growled Thor, “nor where my brother has gone. But there is no place in the nine realms where I cannot find him.”

“Thor, don’t,” cried Jane, as Captain America bounded out of the empty window and down the sloping lawn toward them, shield on his arm. Behind him they could hear the noise from the guns came more often, and roar of the Hulk less frequently.

“Cap, where’s Schmidt?” cried Sam.

“Got away. We have to get out of here, this place is wired to blow” yelled Cap, as Sam took flight, snatching Steve up by the straps used to hold the shield across his back. Iron man slammed down his visor, flipped off Thor with one metal finger, grabbed Jane and took off.

 

*In fact, with his mask on the Red Skull looks remarkably like the Australian actor Hugo Weaving.  But then, you already knew that.


	15. Resurrection

He entered so softly that she never heard him, as she ever afterwards told it. She was at the round white table reviewing the inconclusive results of her attempt to copy Jane's results and wondering what key piece of equipment she'd managed to leave behind in London when some sixth sense made her look up.

And then he stood in the center of the room so casually that for a moment she wondered if she had left the door to the desert standing wide open. When he saw that she had noticed him, he walked toward her, saying “have no fear, maiden, I would but ask you a few questions, and be gone,” and spread his empty elegant hands wide and open.

As if Loki without weapons was not dangerous. Oh, shit, what do I do now, she told herself furiously.

On the other hand, if he was here, Jane's attempt to flush him out must’ve worked. Still, if it had worked, wasn't he supposed to be nicely captured by the Avengers in Seattle?

“No, no, please stay, make yourself at home, you’re very welcome,” she managed.

He paused, looking around at the cluttered workshop as if he’d never seen such a thing. OMG he is so fucking tall, she thought. “Please sit. Jane says Asgardians like coffee, let me make you some,” and she was delighted to see him sit at the chair opposite her.

“Does she make this for Thor?” he asked, leaning on the table.

“I can’t remember. Look, is it OK if I text her for, like, exactly how to make it?” Darcy said. “I mean, I can work the coffee maker and all, but she’s precise, you know?”

“Feel free to …text her,” replied Loki, considering. “I will not take up much of your time, as I have said.” He knows damn well only Thor can take him into custody and I bet he’s thinking Thor doesn’t text. Which, as it happened, was true, but it reminded her too much of Ian lounging around saying Thor wouldn't look Jane up on the Internet.

“But at least stay until you can taste the coffee,” answered Darcy, surreptitiously fishing out her phone. Hovering over the coffee maker in the corner of the galley kitchen she texted Jane OMG Loki here New Mex pls get Avengers ASAP. “No problemo. But look, Jane is just the best at coffee, seriously you have, like, no idea,” said Darcy as she filled the pot with tap water and measured out the grounds. “I mean, I’m going to do my best, but you should try to wait until she gets here. Really her cooking and her coffee is just the shit.”

Loki raised an eyebrow, but did not move otherwise. Briefly Darcy wondered if the Alltongue had translated her remark to mean that Jane’s coffee tasted like excrement or the best thing ever. “I mean, her coffee is excellent. I’m sorry I swear so much. People in London have a problem with it too.   British people, I mean, not Jane or Erik or Ian, although, yeah, Ian’s British. There, the coffee’s brewing, you’ve gotta stay for a cup,” as she heard the machine gurgle, and sat down again.

“I appreciate a chance to try it,” Loki answered her, “and I thank you.”

OK so far so good. Deep breathing, come on you can do this girl. Even if Thor and his magic handcuffs hadn't checked in with the Avengers, he must've been in touch with Jane since that stupid shit in London. SHIELD had been able to send strike teams anywhere in the world under an hour, surely Thor could make a New Mexico address where he'd fucking lived in a couple of minutes. “Cream or sugar?” she asked him, desperately racking her brain as to whether the milk in the fridge was new. It was, wasn’t it? After all, she had gotten in last night after only a 25 hour flight with two stops from London and then a two hour drive from Albuquerque in a rented car with broken airconditioning. She couldn’t remember whether she’d picked up fresh milk or not.

Come to think of it, had she even stopped off at the local store? She had no idea.

“I do not understand,” said Loki.

“Oh my god you have like, never had coffee before. Oh, wow. Ok, here’s the deal. Coffee’s strong and kind of bitter, so people put sugar in it to sweeten it, or milk, or both – if they want to brew it strong and bitter they foam the milk that’s cappuccino…”

Loki looked lost. Darcy felt lost. “Except that I don’t know how to make that, OK? Jane does,” and this gave her an excuse to surreptitiously check her phone below the table. Nothing. No fucking ETA, fuck these supersoldier Avenger guys they couldn’t even text you when they were going to show up, “Anyhow, Thor likes lattes, which is hot milk, I think. I can heat it up on the stove.” But he’s not even Thor’s actual brother, how do frost giants like their coffee? Who the fuck in any of the nine realms has any idea on that one? “How about I give it to you black, and you tell me if it’s like, too strong, or too bitter, and then we can add milk or sugar or what have you?”

“Certainly,” replied Loki. He leaned forward over the table, jade eyes on her, so dazzling that she felt tongue tied. Then she noticed something: one of his eyes appeared dim and -- dented? At least it seemed sunk so far back in his head that she could not tell if both eyes were seeing her or not. Belatedly she realized he wanted something from her.

“What are SSRIs?” Loki asked her.

“A kind of drug, I mean a class of drugs,” she answered. OMFG he’s hacked my email. Fuck fuck fuck. And I didn't do anything! All that ever happened was that everyone just told me what a bad idea it was! “They alter chemical compositions in the brain.”

“In what way?”

What the hell do SSRIs even do? Fuck fuck fuck. My taser is in London, fuck airline rules. Then again Loki wasn’t even an Aesir, what happens if you tase a frost giant? Who the hell knows? Where was Thor and the fucking Avengers? Why wasn’t Jane answering her text? Surreptitiously she checked wikipedia on her phone. “I think they fix serotonin uptake inhibitors. No, wait, I think they are serotonin uptake inhibitors, my bad. So you have more serotonin floating around for use in your brain.” She could see enough brewed coffee for one cup through the glass. Was the coffee maker the new kind that you could stop while you poured a cup or would she have coffee all over her counter if she tried to pour him a cup now? She couldn’t remember; Jane had always made the coffee. As far as she knew Jane had bought or made everything here. Ever since she'd been Jane's lab assistant the coffee machine was just there, a found object like the wide table and chairs and the plain white plates in the cupboards and all the science equipment piled up against the glass and metal walls.

“What is serotonin?” he asked, just as intent.

Suddenly it hit her: his brother was sick enough to need drugs, and he wanted to know why.

But he wouldn’t understand what she had to tell him. The idea that courage or hope, fear or despair, love or mercy could be just the result of brain chemistry would be hopelessly foreign to the Asgardian worldview. It would never even occur to Loki that his brother's grief could be a chemical imbalance that could be treated by drugs. As long as she kept her explanations technical Loki would have no idea what she was talking about.

As long as it took the damn Avengers to get the fuck over here.

And she had wikipedia on her phone….

“It’s a neurochemical,” she answered.   “I mean, I don’t know much about it, but my understanding it that with SSRIs, the serotonin stays in the synaptic gap between the neurons longer than it normally would. This way it triggers chemical reactions of the next cell more often and so you get signaling across synapses in which serotonin serves as the primary neurotransmitter.   The more you do it, the more you get more the pre-synaptic neuron to synthesize and release less serotonin.   This cuts the cycle. Eventually you get more down-regulation of post-synaptic serotonin receptors.” She looked up to enjoy Loki's baffled look. “I mean, that’s the short form. There are a lot of other chemical reactions involved. But the SSRIs basically affect the feedback mechanism of certain synapses in the brain. “

Loki contemplated her in silence, apparently trying to figure out a response. Score, she thought, now where the fuck are Thor & co.? But by the sound of it at least the coffee was done.

She jumped up and filled two mugs, and put them on the table. Then she checked the milk from the refrigerator, left it there, and took the sugar, two spoons and napkins from the counter over to the round white formica table.

She passed Loki a mug. “Here, have your first cup of coffee, and tell me what you think. Be careful, it’s hot.”

He took it carefully in two beautiful white hands and lifted it to his face. He smelt it and sipped, and then smiled at her. Was it her imagination or was the sunken eye more prominent now? “A bit bitter, I think. That calls for sugar, does it not?”

She pushed the sugar canister over to him and handed him a spoon. “Pour the sugar into the spoon and taste it to see if you like the sweetness. Then add a little at a time.” Maybe aliens shouldn’t even be eating earth food, she thought, or drinking earth coffee. Then again Thor devoured pop tarts by the carton with no apparent harm and that shit wasn’t even good for people.

Loki tasted the sugar on the spoon as delicately as a cat, and then just as carefully put half a spoonful in.

“Now you have to stir it to dissolve it,” she said, but he was already doing so; and, laying aside the spoon, he lifted the mug to his lips and drank.   She checked her phone; nothing.

Loki put the mug down and smiled at her. “I like it,” he said.

“So did Thor,” she replied. “Just don’t smash the cup, though, this one we have to pay to replace. So how’s life on the lam?’ she asked, forgetting that he was supposed to be dead, and took a sip from her own mug. Not bad. She could at least make coffee.

“Better than life inside the big house,” he replied, watching her closely to see if he'd gotten the slang right.

Score one for Loki, she thought. Fuck, though, she'd probably just insulted him. Where the fuck were the Avengers? “I mean you’re not on the lam in terms of earth. I mean, we need you. Thor needs to talk to you. Also Jane.” He’d had some kind of connection to Jane, hadn’t he? She’d said he’d protected her from Malekith’s dark elves not just when Thor was blasting the Aether as they'd agreed but later, when Kurse had turned on them.

“Jane?” He took another sip of her coffee. “Is this about the SSRIs?”

Jane, right, because as far as Loki knew Thor was still going to put him back in eternal solitary confinement. Note to self, Darcy, don’t tell Loki to hunt up Thor. “Possibly, although Jane would have to explain that to you,” replied Darcy. “I mean I think Jane needs to speaks to you.”

“Why?’ he asked, putting the mug down.

“I don’t know,” Darcy guessed. “Maybe it’s about science, maybe it’s about SSRIs? I mean, Thor’s usually gone, he’s often helping Asia or South America with rain. It’ll be just Jane.”

He smiled at her, and gently said, “Feel free to call her, if you choose.”

Flustered, Darcy stood, and said, “We’re really not going to hand you over to Thor and Asgard. Scout’s honor.”

“I realize that. It was the Russian woman who summoned Thor and his archer.” And again he smiled.

Darcy stared at him, petrified. True enough, she had emailed Natasha, but what was he talking about? Fucking Natasha must've googled Jane and told Thor about the conference. Well, that was probably not the hardest bit of spying Natasha had ever done. But if Thor was back in touch with the Avengers, where the hell were they?

“Do not let it trouble you,” he told her, seeing her expression. “For if she needs to ask me concerning these SSRIs with which you would dose my brother, I would speak with her.” He took another sip of his coffee.

Feeling really foolish, Darcy took her phone out.   Still no answer to her text, and straight to voicemail when she called Jane. What could possibly have gone wrong? She tried Maria.

A deep male voice answered her. "Hello?"

Darcy immediately killed the call. Fuck fuck fuck something must've gone badly wrong. Maybe Red Skull had captured them all? That might explain what Loki was doing here.   But then why was he asking to speak to Jane? Perhaps he had escaped, then the rest were captured by Red Skull. Could she ask him? Maria said this vid or whatever it was had turned up and had vindicated him, they could trust him now, but really? Did she dare?

Fuck the expense, she would call Ian and ask him to find out what was going on in Seattle. She dialed his number, and, after a few false tries with the international area code, a sleepy-sounding Ian finally answered his fucking phone.

"Bloody hell, Darcy, what?"

"Ian, I need you to get in touch with -- with..." Loki was looking right at her across the table; was he smirking, damn it? Both eyes seemed fine now. Had he changed - healed - even as she watched him? Or had she just made up the whole thing out of a trick of the light? "With Tony Stark. Like, right now."

"Darcy, it's three o'clock in the morning."

"And you're not still up?"

"No, I'm not, that's bloody obvious."

"Well, it's not three am in America, and I can't get anybody on the phone."

"Anybody?" Ian stopped sounding sleepy. "What do you mean, you can't get anyone? What happened?"

"That's why I'm fucking calling you, O.K? I have no idea. Get someone from Stark on the line. Find out and call me back." She hung up and glared at Loki. He was studying his coffee, but he was definitely smirking now. You little shit, she thought, you know perfectly well what's going on.

"If you'd like to speak to anyone beyond my hearing, you need only step outside the door," he offered. "I promise not to disappear."

Feeling even more foolish, Darcy got up, stepped outside, and shut the glass and metal door behind her. The windows of the sleepy town were brightening with lamps lit against the coming twilight, while the sky was still bright from the setting sun. The town showed very little of the damage wrought by the Destroyer and the Bifrost, although there was a suspiciously new veneer to the classic storefronts and retro signs up and down Main Street. The air felt as hot as it had all afternoon, and beyond the pretty clapboard storefronts she could see the dusty desert stretching to the horizon. To Darcy, trapped in Jane's old lab with a world-destroying space alien (but she wasn't trapped, was she? didn't he just tell her she could step outside?), the quiet windows spoke appealingly of a normal, sane, wormhole-free alien-free existence. She missed London, the rain, Jane, Erik and Ian, not in that order.

Her phone rang; it was Ian, and she felt a surge of relief at hearing his voice. "I got Pepper in New York. She said everyone's O.K., they burnt the place down though, but Loki got away...."

"I know that," she hissed at him. "Fucking Loki's right here. I'm trying to figure out how to hand him over to the Avengers. Are they all still in Seattle?"

"Loki's there? Darcy, get out of there, I'm calling the police right now." And he hung up.

Riiight, Ian just knows he's alive, nothing else, he never talked with Maria. So much for that moment of missing Ian, she thought. Fuck him.

But if everyone is O.K, then who the fuck is answering Maria's phone? She dialed it again.

“Darcy Lewis, did you just call this number?"

“Who’s this? How'd you know my name?”

“Nick Fury, at your service. Looks to me like my agent Maria Hill has programmed your name and number into her phone. You should feel honored.”

"She's not your agent, she works for Stark like me. Hey, weren’t you the head of SHIELD?   I thought I saw on the news that you were dead or something. Is there still a SHIELD? Because if there is, we could use your secret agent guys, like, right now.”

The man’s voice chuckled. “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. As for SHIELD, I admit we've got a few men on the ground trying to rebuild. But I take it that’s not why you’re calling. Should I hand the phone off to Hill?”

“Trying to reach Jane, where is she? Is she OK? Wait a minute, don’t tell me you guys, like, confiscated our stuff again. Is that why her phone isn’t answering?”

Maria came on the line. “Darcy, it’s all right, Jane’s fine, she’s here, her phone got tossed out of a car window by one of Red Skull’s goons about an hour ago. I’d let you speak to her but right now she’s chewing out Thor.”

And I bet you're enjoying listening to that, thought Darcy. “Loki’s here, OK? In my place, I mean Jane’s lab, drinking my bad coffee.”

She could hear Maria telling everyone to shut up. Jane’s voice came on the line. “Is Loki there? Is he all right?”

“Um, yeah, why wouldn’t he be? What do you want me to do? Can Thor or someone come get him?”

“No, Darcy, whatever you do, don’t call Thor, for God’s sake. Thor showed up here with Clint, and Clint put an arrow into him. Loki, I mean. Seriously, is he OK?”

Darcy looked through the glass walls at Loki, who was still sitting quietly at the table, smiling at her over his coffee. “Seems to be.”

Maria came on the phone. “Colonel Rhodes is on his way. Stall him until he gets there.”

“Who?”

“He looks like Iron Man but it’s a different suit. Stay put, and keep Loki there too. Can you do that?”

“I’ll try.” She hung up, thinking what the fuck am I supposed to do now?

She went back in, shutting the lab's door behind her, as if that could keep in a teleporting god. “More coffee?” she asked.

“Certainly.” He offered her the mug. She refilled it and set it down in front of him. A question popped into her head. "Like, humans live a lot shorter lives than you guys, right? We max out at a hundred or so, but you guys go to to five thousand, right?"

"Or longer. Why do you ask?"

"Because that means we're, oh, I don't know, like hamsters or gerbils or something, in comparison with Asgardians? I mean hamsters live only a year or two. And Thor loves the mortals, right? Does that mean that up in Asgard he's a guy who's seriously into his hamsters? Like, disturbingly into his hamsters?"

Loki laughed - a bright, silvery, beautiful, genuine laugh. Then he smiled at her and said, "Not at all. We are tasked to protect the peace of the Nine Realms, and no-one is more thoroughly burdened with this than the Allfather -- or his heir. It is considered commendable among us that Thor cares so deeply for you." He paused, and added softly, "although my brother sets himself up only for heartbreak in so doing."

"Is that what your parents say?"

Loki looked down at his second cup of coffee, and, picking up his spoon, stirred its dark surface before he answered. Forgetting for the moment that the lack of milk or cream was no one's fault but her own, she noted that he had added only sugar. So he likes his coffee dark and sweet, she thought. "To Thor? I know not. Did Jane tell you our mother is dead?"

Oh shit Darcy you just put your foot into it didn't you? Fucking stupid thing to say, asking him about the fucking parents. "Yeah, um, like I'm, like, really sorry, Jane did tell me all about Frigga and Odin on Asgard. So sorry."

The clear jade eyes that were raised to hers showed renewed interest. “Did Jane meet the Allfather and the Allmother when Thor took her there?”

Darcy’s mind reeled. The fuck he doesn’t know. But then, how could he? Jane had been too sick to talk, Thor by his own admission had refused to tell Loki about their mother’s death, and who else even knew the details? Shit, she would have to tell him what happened. Darcy the bearer of bad news. Uggh. How long would it take this Colonel Rhodes to get here?

“I mean, I don’t know, I think you’ll really have to stick around to talk to Jane about this but Jane was with her when she died. I mean when Frigga died. Jane’s still alive, obviously.”

Loki froze, absolutely still, and the gentle look in his beautiful jade eyes sharpened. Darcy was certain, now, that she had seen his eye heal while she was watching.   Look on the bright side, girl -- he’ll stay to listen to this.

“Does Jane ever speak of it?”

“Yes,” said Darcy, and, taking her courage in both hands, she plunged into the tale that Jane had told her about what how Malekith killed Frigga, emphasizing as much as she could that it was Frigga’s choice, that Jane merely had done exactly what Frigga had told her to do every step of the way.

Loki did not move; he sat as still as a painted plaster statue, holding his cooling second mug of black coffee in his long white hands, watching her with his solemn luminous eyes. After she recounted everything she could remember, she fell silent.

“So it was quick, then.”

“Yes. Very. I mean, Odin and Thor were there in less than a minute, but she was already dead. The blast burnt Malekith’s face, and Thor very nearly hit Malekith with his hammer but just missed.”

“But she died to keep the Aether hidden from Malekith.” Loki spoke softly, but she felt the weight of the world in his words.   “And yet the very thing Thor asked me to do was to help him take it to Svartalfheim to hand it over to the Dark Elves.”

“Well, yeah, there’s that. I mean, you didn’t know, you couldn’t know.” Fucking Thor being Thor to not see that, she thought. “And it’s not like Thor didn’t win in the end.”

“He always does,” said Loki. “But I gave the Aether to Malekith.”

And I’ve just told him his mom died to stop exactly that, thought Darcy. Fucking Thor? Fucking _me_.

"Seriously, though, don't beat yourself up over it. Thor's an asshole, O.K.? We're all sick of him, SHIELD stopped debriefing him because they thought he was lying, even Jane's starting to get a bit fed up, I think."

Loki looked puzzled, then curious. "The mortals are unhappy with.... Thor? The shining prince of Asgard?"

"Shining prince my ass, Loki. He's a pompous fool who treats people like shit."

Puzzlement deepened into surprise. "How can this be? Thor is worthy, as none others are or can be. He alone can lift Mjolnir, whose power is without equal as a weapon for destruction or as a tool to build."

"Ever seen him build anything with it?"

Loki opened his mouth as if to speak and then shut it without saying a word. Then he simply stared at Darcy, brows knit, as if he were trying to figure out whether she was joking. Darcy just sat tight, sipping her coffee, deliberately saying nothing, letting her words sink in. Thought so, she said to herself.

“That’s not the point,” he said finally. “Thor uses the hammer to defend the nine realms and …”

“That is the point, that is so the point,” Darcy shot back. “I mean, look at his definition of defending the nine realms. He decides to give the Aether to Malekith so he can hit it with hammer? The hammer is just Odin’s precious toy and it’s not going to be more powerful than Odin, is it? And the Aether pre-existed the universe, it’s going to be more powerful than Odin. So how the fuck could the hammer do anything to the Aether?”

Loki looked at her as if he was trying to work this out. “I do not know if the origins of the hammer…”

“And the hammer’s not worthy or anything like that. It just enforces Odin’s values – obedience, punishment and silence. It’s a useful tool for beating the shit out of living creatures, which is all I bet you’ve ever seen Thor do…”

“He used it to destroy the Bifrost,” said Loki, almost happily, “to save the ancient enemies of Asgard from my wrath. And though the Bifrost is key to Asgard’s defenses and a crucial element of the Allfather’s power, the Allfather never punished him for it.”

Darcy bit her lip. She had to admit to herself that she had not seen that one coming.

Into the lengthening silence came wonderful sound of a chopper overhead. She glanced up; there was no sound on the roof, nor anything landing nearby, just a glimpse of a shadow on the brown earth among the long shadows of sunset beyond the glass walls.

Loki looked withdrawn, shuttered; puzzled or disturbed, she could not tell which. Then he glanced upward briefly and leaned over the table towards her.

“Is my brother ill?” he asked.

Darcy hesitated. Before her a gleaming Iron Man flashed into view, righted himself in front of the open door, and landed by cutting his boot jets just as she'd seen Tony do.

But even as the silver figure walked up to the door and opened it, she could see bodies rappelling down all sides of the glass-walled lab, kicking in all the doors to the desert and the town beyond, pouring into their space. Black-clad men with guns at the ready suddenly encircled them, and in a second all three - the silver Iron Man, Darcy, and Loki - were surrounded by a ring of guns.

Darcy didn’t move; neither did Loki, whose intent gaze softened into a wry smile.

Silver Iron Man pushed up the visor of his helmet as he turned, surveying Loki, Darcy, and the black-clad SWAT team that had swarmed in after him. Then he pointed to a member of the SWAT team.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The man he pointed to did not lower his gun, which remained sighted on Loki. “Commander Fergus Grant. We’re responding to an emergency call reporting an alien terrorist. Identify yourself, and please explain why you are wearing a suit identical to Iron Patriot.”

“Because I am Iron Patriot," snapped Rhodey. He took off his helmet, and looked at Darcy. “Colonel James Rhodes, at your service. You called the police?”

“No, but I think Ian did,” said Darcy. “I’m trying to get Loki to talk to Jane, but I'm guessing she’s in Seattle.”

"Stand down, men," said Fergus Grant, and the SWAT team lowered their weapons, "wait, is this the alien who attacked New York?"

"Um, yeah..." said Darcy, and that was as far as she got, because everyone in the SWAT team immediately raised their weapons and started to creep into what she assumed must be assault positions.

Loki stood up, and held out both his hands palms up, as if to make it easier to handcuff him.

"Stand down," snapped Rhodes, "that's an order."

"With all due respect, sir, we're New Mexico police and we don't take orders from the Army," replied Fergus.

"Air Force," Rhodey corrected them. "He's not resisting, you idiots."

"Loki, can you, like, teleport us out of her?" Darcy asked.

"Where do you wish to go?" Loki inquired; he appeared to be more amused by the SWAT team's obvious fear of him than anything else.

"Stark Seattle," cried Darcy, "big glossy thing in...."

"I know it," said Loki, stepping forward to take one of Darcy's hands in his own and putting his other hand on the shoulder of Rhode's War Machine suit, "stay still."

And around her the familiar kitchen vanished….

 


	16. Revelation

They landed just inside the open double doors of a wide windowless conference room, full of people. Darcy reeled; even Colonel Rhodes staggered, looked at Loki and said, “You teleport. Ok.” Only Loki appeared unaffected. He turned his head toward Darcy and gave her a pointed look.

She saw Maria and Jane and Thor, recognized Tony and Steve from the pictures she’d seen in the news, and said, “um, yeah, this is good.”

Tony spoke first. "Rhodey?"

"Scout's honor," replied James Rhodes, and then pointed at Loki. "You want me to arrest this guy?"

Tony shook his head, and Maria asked Loki, “Are you OK?”

Loki said nothing. Instead Thor spoke, “Do not worry about his eye.”

“Then what about Odin?” asked Tony. “Why did his eye never regenerate in a thousand years?”

“Because he did not wish it to,” said Thor, “the Allfather chose to remind all forever of what King Laufey had done.”

The humans looked at each other. “Asgard holds too many grudges,” said Maria, “and, Thor, with all due respect, we suspect that this aspect of their culture includes you. Please leave, as I think you have been repeated asked."

Loki looked at Thor, who shrugged, and said, “The mortals have learned something and now they do not trust me but they must speak with you. Tell them what they want to know.”

Loki stared at him, puzzlement creeping into his face, and then said, “Brother, I have told you already that I do not know the Red Skull's plans."

"It's not about Red Skull," Jane began, but Steve interrupted her.

"Yes it is," he said, "and we've established that he's our common enemy..."

A dark figure rose from the chair towards the front of the room where he had been sitting; when he spoke Darcy recognized the voice. "It's about Red Skull but there’s a lot more to it than that. I agree with Stark and Hill: Thor needs to leave. At once."

"Wait, are you real?" Tony demanded, after doing a double take.

The man only grinned. "I already told you, Stark, I'm the realest person you'll ever meet."

And then he walked up to Loki and held out a hand in greeting. "Well, it seems we had you all wrong. Better late than never, though. Welcome to Stark Seattle."

Loki held out both hands as if expecting to be handcuffed, but Nick only shook hands and let him go. "You are not surprised to see me?" Loki asked. "How did you come to learn I was alive in Midgard?"

"You were never dead," answered Maria. "And along with the Director I want to thank you for coming, Loki, but we’re going to insist that Thor's got to leave. Now."

"It is dangerous for me to leave you to Loki's mercies,” growled Thor.

"It's things like this that give me trust issues." Nick gave a theatrical sigh. "If you're so damn anxious to be helpful, why are you always working against us?"

"And being such an asshole about it too," added Darcy, who now blamed Thor for the fact she'd just had to describe the circumstances of his mother's death to Loki.

Loki looked from Thor to the mortals and back, frown deepening, until Darcy heard him mutter to himself, "I am Loki but are you Thor?," and then suddenly she saw him hurl two flashes of green-gold light, first at Thor and then another at Nick.

Nothing else happened, except that Loki began to look more anxious than puzzled.

A crisp disembodied voice spoke. "My security measures appear to be compromised, sir."

Nick fished out a pair of plastic-framed glasses from his coat pocket and looked at them; Darcy saw the lenses were clear. "Loki, I think you just ruined my shades."

"Stop your tricks," Thor admonished him.

"Stop talking to him like that," said Jane.

Loki squinted at her, then turned his eyes back to Thor and then to Nick. "I but cast a spell to cancel concealment, yet it seems to have had only trivial effect. Brother, if this is indeed you, what has happened? Why do the mortals speak to you thus?"

"I know not," replied Thor, "they will not tell me."

"Well, there seems to be things you won't tell us," said Steve, eyeing Thor, "so the feeling's mutual." He turned to Loki. "Thank you for taking on Red Skull." And then he grinned at Loki and held out his right hand. "And thank you for throwing the fight. We wouldn't have been able to win otherwise."

Loki neither participated nor resisted as Steve shook his hand. Instead he just stared. "Do you remember that we fought in Stuttgart?" he asked.

"Yes," said Steve, still smiling, "and I remember how easily you surrendered."

"Do you remember me throwing you out the window?" Loki asked Tony.

"Yes," said Tony, "but that was all for show, wasn’t it? Because you threw the fight. It was a good act and it fooled me at the time, but you threw the fight."

"Do you remember the scepter?" Loki asked Clint Barton, who had been leaning against a blank side wall the entire time.

"Yeah, and for what it's worth I still hate you," replied the archer.

"Friend Barton, that is the most reassuring thing you could say right now," replied Loki, with feeling. "Will you tell me what has transpired?"

"I wish I knew myself," replied Clint. "I think your little scepter must've turned me into a mushroom, because ever since then these guys have kept me in the dark and fed me shit."

“We can explain,” said Steve, “but I agree with Nick, Tony and Maria. Before that happens Thor’s got to go.”

“Why can you not speak before him?” Loki asked. “What reality is this?” And then his jade eyes widened and there came into his face a wild frenzied look. For a moment it seemed as if he might begin to either laugh or cry, but instead he turned to Thor. “Brother, has the convergence happened yet?”

“Loki, we are not in an alternate timestream,” growled Thor. “The convergence has happened, and Mother is still dead.   Do as these mortals bid you, and tell them what they want to know.”

“We’re getting nowhere,” said Tony. “Loki, does Thor know how to lie?”

Loki stared at him, wide eyed, then turned his gaze upon the others, searching each face, before he finally turned to Thor. But Thor only smiled at him.

Then suddenly with a flash of green-gold magic Darcy found herself floating in open space, surrounded by nothing but dazzling banks of stars and star-lit dust clouds above and around and below her, brilliant against an infinity of luminous darkness. She cried out, hearing the others cry with her. She felt rather than saw Iron Patriot’s and Iron Man’s boot thrusters fire, as a metal arm reached out to grab her. Terrified, she grabbed on, but in another second the emptiness of space was gone as if it had never been and they were all right back in the windowless conference room, save that Tony and Rhodey were both stepping back from the holes their boot thrusters had just burned into the carpet, and releasing their grip on anyone within arms’ reach. The humans all looked at each other, wide-eyed and panting.

Thor had both hands on Loki now, steadying him with a hand on either side cupping his brother's head, while Mjolnir lay where it fell near his feet. The calm urgency voice in Thor's voice matched his steady, concerned gaze upon his brother’s frightened face. “Loki. Stop your tricks, I will not tell you again. Do as the mortals bid. Tell them the truth, and be not afraid.”

“Stark, you stop it,” said Fury, stepping forward as Thor took his hands off his brother’s shoulders. Turning to Loki, he continued, “I apologize. I think we’re getting off on the wrong foot here. But I have to ask. Loki, can we trust Thor?”

Loki stared at them all, one by one, and while there was as much terror in his face as there had been just before he teleported them all to outer space – although, after looking at the carpet, Darcy realized that it must have been an illusion he had cast, and that in fact no-one had ever left the room – instead of summoning another spell or creating another illusion he spoke.

“I do not know what magic this may be. I cannot with all my art pierce the illusion that has been cast. I do not understand how this world seems to have slipped its allotted sphere.   But I can tell you this: there is no version of any reality where you cannot trust Thor.”

Fury seemed to take this in stride. “Hill, you told me there was a video. Why don’t you show it to us all?”

Maria bit her lip, took a deep breathe, and then said, “All right, Thor can stay, but I’d first like him to swear to us that he will not tell Odin or anyone else in Asgard about anything he sees here.”

“You have my word,” said Thor promptly.

“And you better keep it, big guy,” added Tony.

“Stark, I think I told you to shut up,” said Fury.

“Make me.”

“Oh for God’s sake stop it, both of you,” said Maria, turning toward the back wall of the room and hitting a button on her phone. Darcy saw that the wall was a giant screen showing aerial footage of a blackened, smoking ruin, surrounded by greenery and open water.

The fire-blackened mansion disappeared. In its place the wide screen was filled by an image of a Chitari flier apparently parked in front of a bank of blanketed equipment in what seemed to be a storage room, dimly lit from above by clerestory windows – or were they overhead lamps? Darcy couldn’t tell – as a human-shaped red-faced figure in a long black coat stepped off the flier, walked up to the shrouded machines and pulled the covers off one in a single sweeping gesture. The red-faced creature fiddled with the controls until lights and a humming noise suggested that he had succeeded in turning it on. The old-fashioned cathode ray screen at the top of the machine flickered green, and then filled with the black-and white photograph of a face of pudgy man in small round-faced glasses.

“Zola?” asked the red-faced creature in the long black coat. “Zola, can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” came a voice from the machine, “but I am an islanded copy isolated on this terminal. I can neither communicate with the mainframe nor see you. Who is this?”

“These SHIELD agents should be commended,” said the figure, “it took much trouble for me to find you.”

“More than you know, Herr Schmidt,” returned the machine, “they have sheltered Hydra all this time.”

“I know,” growled the Red Skull, “and for now do not seek to communicate with the mainframe. I would not have von Strucker know that I have returned just yet. I have need of your mind, Armin. Run your diagnostics, and tell me if this copy had enough processing power to answer my questions.”

“I am a complete copy of the kernel and fully functional,” replied the machine, “but I am a backup and without an update my information is only current until…..”

“What is this?” asked Loki, fascinated, approaching the screen.

“This is an art the mortals have: they can record things as they pass and recreate them,” said Thor. He too stepped forward. “What manner of creatures are these?”

Maria stilled the video, and looked at Fury.

“They don’t look like they used to, but both are, in fact, human. They were Captain America’s enemies during the war – and they’re our enemies now. Sit down, both of you,” and Nick gestured at two chairs facing the screen. Loki and Thor sat; the rest of the humans crowded around, some sitting, some standing; even Clint turned to pay attention, though he continued to lean against the wall, sullen, arms crossed. Maria restarted the video.

“….Keep what I tell you encrypted and coded only for access upon my voice, and do not share it with the mainframe in any future communication until I instruct you otherwise. You remember the Tesseract?” said the voice of the Red Skull from the screen filling the wall.

“All too well, but alas, although it was found, it is now lost again….”

“I know that,” snapped the image of Schmidt. “And it has been returned to Asgard no less. I have told you, I have no need for you to update me; I am aware of what has transpired on earth in my absence. How else do you think I could have located your backup here? I have been on many worlds since the Tesseract transported me from this realm. But I must frame my question for you with certain information first: There is a monster – a Titan named Thanos, more powerful than any of the gods whose toys we aped – returned from the dead…..”

“Truly?” said the copy of Zola.

“Oh yes,” said image of Red Skull, “in fact that is the least of what should concern you. There are creatures before whom the gods are as weak as humans are before the gods, and this Titan is one of them.”

Upon hearing the name Thanos, Loki buried his face in both hands.

“You know what’s coming,” said Tony.

“Thanos,” said Thor, looking wary, “Thanos is returned from the kingdom of Death?”

“This is what we have to keep from Asgard,” said Maria to Thor, “you’ll see why.”

“Shut up,” said Nick.

On screen, the black-clad human figure continued, “…and though this Loki told Thanos that he would aid him, I am sure he was lying. Yet I cannot for the life of me discern where the trick may be. I am hoping that the purity of your machine mind may help.”

“Try me, then,” replied the machine, “but I must know all.”

“Very well,” and the creature began to pace in front of the dim image on the green cathode ray screen. Now that she could see the red face clearly, Darcy noticed that it appeared to be a skull, shrunk to crimson bone save for two gleaming eyes. “No-one dares to approach Thanos without an offering, so I presented him with my Chitauri….”

“Wait, the Chitauri belonged to this Red Skull?” asked Thor, bewildered.

“They’re a type of Skrull,” said Loki. “Why, what did you think they were?”

“The Allfather said they were of no known realm,” replied his brother.

“That’s poor lying even for Asgard,” declared Loki. “Everyone knows about the Kree-Skrull war ….except on Midgard?” for everyone had turned to stare at them.

Maria stopped the recording. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

“It would take much time to explain,” said Loki. “Brother, have you never spoken of this to the mortals?”

“I thought it beyond the mortals’ understanding. I never knew the Chitauri were Skrull. How came Midgard to be involved in such disputes?” Thor appeared bewildered.

“No more and no less than any other realm,” said Loki. “The Kree scarcely keep their depredations to those with whom they have a legal fight. I begin to see why the mortals take your silence amiss, brother.”

“We can discuss this after we finish with Red Skull,” declared Nick. “Hill, please continue.”

The image of Red Skull up on the screen continued to speak“….and after I explained the history of our socialist workers’ party and our theory of lightning war, I convinced Thanos that armed with the Titan’s power it would be an easy matter for me to conquer earth and deliver the Tesseract to him,” gloated the red-faced creature on screen, “and then truly would the Allied nations burn. For Thanos has promised his dark mistress a killing of men to balance the extinction they themselves are causing, and so right the balance of the lives coming to her from this realm. And Thanos agreed that I would accomplish this for him, by lending to me the power to destroy all human life in the nations allied against us during the war.”

“But this did not happen,’ said the machine that called itself Zola. “Instead we have this dainty invasion, easily defeated, led by another.”

The ugliness of the creature was nothing to the effect produced by the rage that distorted his face in response. “You need not remind me,” hissed the Red Skull. “True, this Loki has taken my war from me, and because of him this wicked filthy city – this worthless mongrel race -- still stands. If Thanos had but left command of his task with me, all of North America and England would be a blazing charnel house, and this war, this victory would have been mine, all mine!”

“How did it happen?” inquired the machine. “Tell me all, and perhaps I can discern where lies the trick.”

The Red Skull stood still, contemplated the squat terminal. “Thanos had another minion – a disgusting creature, two thumbs to each hand – who had previously secured the Titan’s favor by presenting him with this Loki. According to the minion, Loki would not speak, but the creature could tell he had fallen from Asgard. Thanos' true target is and was Asgard, and so the Titan went to work. Despite a year of inventive methods – and, my dear Zola, what we did was but child’s play to what this Titan knows of pain, truly there were lessons there that I would willingly have stopped to learn! –“

“This is not data I can analyze,” said the machine dispassionately. “I need data.”

“Thanos could get nothing out of this Asgardian until I secured Thanos’ consent to destroy the Allied nations, which the Titan willingly agreed to let me accomplish in exchange for bringing him the Tesseract. Only the mention of that won me his favor, and granted me a hearing. For the Titan laughed at my Chitauri,” said Red Skull bitterly. “But to interfere with my vengeance – to disrupt my war – for that reason, after Thanos and I had reached agreement – and for that reason only, would the fallen Asgardian speak…”

“Loki, why didn’t you run away?” demanded Thor, as Maria stilled the screen in response to his question. “Thanos is powerful, but he is no master of magic. Why let him torture you?”

Loki was silent; he turned his eyes to his brother, but did not speak.

“Because once you start running away, you don’t stop,” said Steve Rogers, stepping forward. “Thor, you’re out of line.”

Thor looked taken aback at this. Loki still said nothing, and Maria restarted the video. Red Skull’s voice filled the room: “only after our agreement was set – only after I would mastermind the invasion of earth, and inflict true punishment, so long delayed, upon our enemies – did this creature speak to Thanos. Just as Thanos was about to entrust me with the scepter, this mangled creature leapt up and cried: ‘He knows the Tesseract? He knows nothing of the Tesseract. He accidently used it to transport himself leaving it behind, getting so thoroughly lost in the process that he has been attempting in vain to return ever since.’”

“But that is in truth exactly what you did,” replied Zola.

Another bout of hideous anger distorted the image of the Red Skull. “If you were not already dead do not think for a second that I would not kill you for your insubordination!”

“I am a machine,” responded Zola, “I need data.”

Red Skull appeared to sulk for a moment, seemed to think better of it, and then said: “Try this for data, then: Thanos’ minion told Thanos that Loki had come alone to Jotunheim, taking credit for a secret path opened earlier directly into the Weapons Vault in Asgard, and offering the Jotun king, Laufey, a chance to regain their Casket and to kill Odin would he but come with Loki via the Bifrost.”

“If this Asgardian had indeed opened a secret path straight into the Weapons Vault,” inquired the machine, “why bring Laufey in over the Bifrost?”

“Because Loki was lying through his teeth about that hidden path,” snapped the Red Skull, “for after they became the best of friends at my expense, this Loki told Thanos that Odin himself allowed the Jotuns into the weapons vault, timing it to match the height of some ceremony, and solely to provoke a rebellion from his eldest son that Odin took great pleasure in punishing.”

“I never expected you to find out in such a manner…” said Loki to Thor, as Maria stilled the video once again.

Thor only smiled ruefully. “I have refused the throne. Trouble yourself no more over my failed coronation.”

Maria restarted the video. “The gods treat each other thus?” asked the machine.

“Yes,” said the Red Skull, “the one thing everyone I met in all my travels through the Nine Realms agreed upon was that Asgard was a perfect nest of vipers.”

“They were gods of the Nazis,” said the machine dispassionately, “what did you expect? But I need more data.”

“The Asgardian said that all my claims about the power of the gods were nonsense; that he, Loki, was actually one of the gods, and more besides: that he could gain for Thanos the Infinity Gauntlet, which he himself had seen in the Weapons Vault. And Thanos said that first he must have the Tesseract, and then asked Loki how he had come to be exiled from Asgard. Then this Loki told Thanos that the minion spoke true -- Loki had indeed betrayed Odin to Laufey, but Thor slew Laufey and turned the full force of the Bifrost upon Jotunheim to destroy it. Loki then tricked Thor into destroying the Bifrost; but upon realizing what he had done, Thor seized Loki and flung him into the void.”

“Did that happen?” demanded the machine.

“It must have,” replied Red Skull, “it was certainly rumored among the Nine Realms that although Thor destroyed the Bifrost, he was never punished for it, but continued in Odin’s good graces as his son and heir. And that is very odd, for not only is the Bifrost the principal weapon and heart of the defenses of Asgard, the Allfather himself is famous for the fact that he neither forgets nor forgives.”

“And this made Thanos trust this Asgardian?” said the copy of Zola.

“This and Loki’s speeches,” replied Red Skull bitterly. “For I will give my enemy this: he made very pretty speeches. He swore to Thanos that he feared not death – for if he would save his life, of all beings in the universe would he appeal to Thanos, the lover and servant of Mistress Death – but of rage at this Thor, and desire for vengeance upon Asgard, he would have his own misery serve Thano’s turn, and therefore offered to fight Asgard and earth its favored playground. And he further bid Thanos send him to Thanos’ sweet mistress Death if Thanos would not use him for this fight, since Thanos was one of the few who knew how to kill him.”

“Why, was that in question?” inquired the machine.

“Apparently so, or at least that is what Thanos said when I threatened to kill Loki. They both laughed at me when I made that threat! But I found something out from Thanos’ minion earlier: it is possible to kill Loki, but whatever you may see, he is actually dying only when he turns blue.”

“What means that?”

“I know not,” answered Red Skull. “I found many creatures among the nine realms that were blue: Kree, Centaurians, Frost Giants…”

“Any native to Asgard?”

“It would be hard for anyone to answer that question,” responded Red Skull. “Asgard is a black box. No-one knows what transpires there. The Asgardians may go wherever they wish via the Bifrost; but entry to Asgard is impossible apart from the Bifrost or by Odin’s dark magic alone, as this Loki confirmed to Thanos….”

“I do not understand,” said Thor, bewildered. Maria stopped the video again. “This Red Skull would have waged war upon earth?”

“Yes,” answer Steve Rogers. “Red Skull certainly would have destroyed all of America if he’d had the chance. I knew the guy.”

“So, Loki took control of the Red Skull’s Chitauri to save the mortals from an extinction at the hands of Thanos and Red Skull? Why?” Thor was bewildered.

At that Loki looked Thor full in the face, astonished in turn. “Because you told me to, brother. Do you not remember? Well, I shall treasure it to the end of my days. You apologized, when you were on earth, and bid me spare the mortals who were innocent.   Therefore I made it clear on the Helicarrier that the lot of you were not innocent,” and here he looked around at the Avengers and the former SHIELD agents. He pointed to Tony. “You, the metal man, you are the most famous mass murderer in the history of America….”

“But New York,” said Steve, “how were those civilians guilty?”

“New Yorkers are Jewish Bolsheviks,” said Loki, quite seriously, “and they are responsible for the Versailles Diktat, the Great War, and all the ills of the world.”

Everyone stared at him. “Who told you that?” demanded Fury.

“Red Skull.” Loki gestured at the screen. “He was our only Midgardian, so he was our expert on all things Midgard.”

Fury put up one hand to cover his good eye, and Loki looked at him curiously. “Are you the head of world Jewry?” he asked. Fury put up his other hand to completely hide his face.

“Um, Loki, what Red Skull told you and Thanos was dirty Nazi propaganda,” said Steve. “There never was any secret cabal of Jewish Bolsheviks running the world from New York. That was Hitler’s sick fantasy.”

Loki looked nonplussed. “This Red Skull told a lot of lies, but he seemed to believe that one. So there was no Treaty of Versailles that imposed terrible reparations upon Germany after the Great War?”

“That happened, but look,” said Steve, “what the Red Skull told you guys was Nazi propaganda that mixed some truth with a lot of lies…..”

“Loki, when this is over, I see we’re going to have to re-educate you on a lot of things,” said Nick, taking his hands away from his face.

“Steve,” said Tony, “would Red Skull himself have actually believed this shit?”

“I have no idea,” answered Steve.

“You never tried to find out?” asked Sam.

“We never needed to,” said Steve. “We were basically just fighting the bastard. We never really cared what he thought, apart from trying to guess how he was planning to kill us.”

“Loki,” said Thor to his brother, “henceforth I abjure you to spare as many of the mortals as you can, not just the ones who are innocent.”

“That might be difficult,” complained Loki. “For instance, brother, does your ban against slaying the mortals include this Red Skull?”

“No,” replied everyone at once.

“Anyone else?” inquired Loki.

“Er, I think we’re going to have to get back to you on that,” said Nick. “Maria, let’s continue.”

Maria duly restarted the video, and the machine that called itself Zola continued to speak. “It appears that this rebel against Asgard has twice now led armies against Asgard, with no more effect than the utter destruction of both armies.”

“The Bifrost has been destroyed,” returned Red Skull.

“By Thor, as everyone agrees,” replied the machine. “But I wonder that this Thanos trusted Loki, regardless of whatever pretty speeches he made.”

“Indeed he did not,” said Red Skull, “for while Thanos may have given Loki my army and his scepter, he also extracted an oath of silence which buys us some time. Saying Loki’s silver tongue would turn to his own advantage whatever he were allowed to say, Thanos bid Loki never to speak of their meeting, nor to mention Thanos’ name, nor to tell anyone the truth of how he came to invade earth; and if Loki ever broke this oath, Asgard would pay the price. And Loki swore that he would not speak of Thanos until Thanos had the Infinity Gauntlet from the Weapons Vault on his hand; but he swore his oath to Mistress Death, that she would not permit Thanos to add any from Asgard to her kingdom should Loki keep his promise.”

“There seems to be a slight difference in wording there, between what this Thanos requested and what was sworn,” said the machine. “Does Death itself keeps Thanos’ promises for him?”

“She does indeed – and to tell you the truth I thought it wiser to depart than to await her presence to witness Loki’s oath. Therefore I regained my Chitauri and mingled among them, until the portal opened and I saw a path by which I could return….”

“Does Loki still have to keep this promise once he’s out of Thanos’ sight?” demanded Tony. “How’s Thanos going to enforce it?”

“Death enforces it for him,” said Thor. “If I were to kill you here and now, would Death not take you? She is everywhere, and therefore Loki’s oath still binds him.”

“Shut up,” said Nick.

“…..I told you that Thanos’ return from the kingdom of the dead was the least of it. Thanos was willing to entrust me with the war against earth merely because I told him of the Tesseract; he called the Tesseract the Space Gem.”

“Does this matter?” inquired the machine.

“It matters more than the rest of what I tell you put together. For the Space Gem is one of the Infinity Gems; and the Infinity Gems yoked together make their wearer truly all powerful. Control them, and you will control life and death itself; eternity and infinity; Lord Chaos and Master Order. They were created beyond our space-time continuum, and when all are arrayed upon the Infinity Gauntlet they possess the power to recreate or reorder all time and space. Gain me Asgard, Zola, and I shall establish a Reich the like of which this universe has never seen.”

“These may not be forces we should play with,” answered the machine. “It is one thing to harness energies to power weapons, and quite another to become gods. However, it seems to me we have a nearer obstacle. According to the oath that Loki swore, Mistress Death will keep Thanos from killing anyone in Asgard – which suggests that upon winning his prize Thanos would have some good reason to want such a slaughter. You are correct: there is some betrayal hidden in that oath Loki swore. However, this is insufficient data for me to determine what it is. Could you approach this Thanos again and learn more?”

“I would not,” declared Red Skull. “His power is too great. I would challenge him only if I were to gain control over the Infinity Gems. He listened to me only because I brought him news of the Tesseract.”

“Then though you do not wish to hear this, we should seek the aid of this Loki once you are upon Asgard, if not before.”

Up on the screen, the image of Red Skull drew back, and gazed at the machine in silent fury.

“Hear me out,” continued the machine Zola. “Since you are not Thanos, perhaps this Loki may hate you less than you may think. Remember it is earth we want to rule; perhaps let Loki have Asgard, and in exchange he may tell you what the trick may be.”

“Loki is my enemy,” snared Red Skull, “he has come between me and my vengeance.”

“He is not your enemy,” replied the machine, “he is Thanos’ enemy. You were a tool that turned up to enable him to make his escape. He knows far more than I suspect he told even Thanos, and certainly more than what he said in your presence.”

“Than what should we do?” demanded the Red Skull.

“Regain the Tesseract,” declared Zola. “If the mortal allies of Asgard can persuade Asgard to return the Tesseract to earth, which they are likely to do – for they need its clean energy to defeat the wrath of Mistress Death – we should be able to steal it from them again; it was easy enough to do so before. With the Tesseract, we can enter Asgard. With Loki, we can penetrate its defenses and seize its power. Make your peace with Loki, and persuade him to be your ally.”

“But the Jotuns entered Asgard,” replied Red Skull, “never to be seen again, with this Loki as their guide.”

“True,” answered the machine, “but they sought to attack Asgard. Promise him the safety of Asgard and see if you cannot persuade him to let you have earth in return.”

“I like it not,” declared the Red Skull.

“Have you a better plan?” replied Zola.

“I…. do not. But Loki has been taken back to Asgard in chains. If what you suggest is true, those chains are temporary, but be that as it may. We must get ourselves established somewhere, and safely away from my old rival von Strucker. I have no intention of sharing with him any information concerning this.”

“Then I propose we try for Seattle,” returned the machine. “I hear there is a corporation there, Microsoft, whose philosophy sounds ripe for Hydra…..” and here Maria clicked off the video.

“Rest of this is just planning for setting up Kovacs here?” asked Nick. Maria nodded.

“Good,” said Tony, and he marched over to where Thor still sat, mesmerized by the now-still screen. “How much of this did you know?”

“None of it,” declared Thor.

“Maybe Odin wouldn’t tell you about all this, but what about Heimdall?” asked Maria. “I can’t believe Red Skull knew how to cloak himself from Asgard’s sight.”

“And what’s the Thanos threat and all this talk of Mistress Death?” asked Nick. “It sounds to me as if Thanos is not exactly news to the rest of the Nine Realms.”

“And what’s with this Kree-Skrull war?” demanded Tony. “When were we going to learn about that?”

“I… do not know,” said Thor. “The Allfather told me about the Chitauri and beyond that I did not inquire. It never occurred to me to ask Heimdall about …any of this.”

Loki stood. "Mortals, my brother Thor,” said he, with a sweep of his arm as if to introduce the god of thunder to earth for the first time.

“We were always taught that such matters as the Infinity Gems and elementals such as Mistress Death were beyond the mortals’ understanding,” protested Thor.

“But not beyond our experience, apparently,” said Steve, crossing his arms over his chest. “Sounds to me that Red Skull had a done deal with Thanos when Loki decided the only way to stop the attack was to hijack it and crash it. I had to do something like this once already, when the Red Skull tried to bomb every major city in America. There was no way Johann Schmidt was going to miss a chance to try again – and this Infinity Gauntlet would make him happier than a pig in mud. C’mon, Thor, when were we going to know? Or were we all just going to have to fry first?”

“I…I swear to you I knew nothing of this. I would never knowingly have let such peril threaten your planet. ”

“And he didn’t,” said Jane, coming to the front of the room. “I can explain.”

Loki turned to stare at her with a searching look, but he said nothing.

“Let’s hear it,” said Nick quietly.

“Yeah,” added Tony, “inquiring minds want to know.”

“Red Skull is right about one thing,” said Jane. “Odin does want to punish Thor for destroying the Bifrost. But look at how he works! He’d much rather set Thor up to fail and then punish him for the failure. It’s just like letting the Jotuns into the Weapons Vault at the height of the coronation ceremony, and then using it as an excuse to cancel everything. The Allfather knew what would happen, Thor, and planned to teach you a lesson. Then you destroyed the Bifrost! That pissed him off, but it was his own plan that led to it, and in theory you’d learned your lesson and everything at that point, so he couldn’t officially punish you for it.”

“And he didn’t,” said Thor, still bewildered.

“But he wanted to.   So making you and Heimdall watch Red Skull slaughter us all while the Bifrost was broken would have served the Allfather’s purposes perfectly: it would teach you the value of the damn thing, and keep you from ever returning to earth because none of us would be left alive here, both at the same time.” She turned to face the rest of the room. “See how it all worked? Thor would be heartbroken and the earth would be destroyed, but from the Allfather’s point of view all would be well. Am I not right, Loki? Isn’t this the truth?”

All turned to look at the slight, dark-haired figure that sat next to Thor. Loki looked around the room, and finally met the stricken gaze of his brother; but he said nothing.

For the last time, Thor said, “Tell the mortals what they want to know.” This time his voice was rough with fear.

Then Loki looked at Jane, and heartbreak showed in his eyes; but he nodded.

“Your mortal is speaking truth,” he said at last. “The Allfather certainly would have let the Red Skull’s war happen. I knew that; what I did was all I could think of to stop him.”

“Brother,” said Thor, and that was all he said; but he jumped up and enfolded Loki in his arms.

“This brotherly reunion is touching and all,” said Tony, as he watch Thor hug Loki, “but it would nicer if it didn’t occur in the face of a massive threat to all human life on this planet. And since Loki can’t talk about Thanos, we’ll never know what Red Skull is asking Zola…...”

“Oh, I can tell you that,” said Thor, releasing his brother. “The Infinity Gauntlet is in the Weapons Vault but the gems are not on it. The Allfather allows no more than one in the vault at any time. The rest are hidden on various realms, just as the Tesseract was hidden on earth.”

“And this Thanos is going to be consumed with rage when he gets his paws on the Infinity Gauntlet and discovers that it’s been sabotaged,” said Tony.

Loki nodded.

“Not sabotaged, exactly,” said Thor, “the Gauntlet is merely a vehicle that yokes the six to worth together; without them it is no more than a metal glove. But you are right: Thanos shall be angry indeed to gain the Weapons Vault and discover the gems gone. Your trick was well done, brother,” and there was real warmth in his voice when he said that to Loki.

“Nice,” said Fury, although his expression was anything but. “So, Thor, that was why the Allfather sent you? To retrieve the Tesseract so that it wouldn’t fall into the hands of this Thanos?”

This checked Thor’s happiness. “I….yes, probably.”

“And it sounds to me as if the Allfather doesn’t care one whit for Loki, or earth, or anything other than proving that nobody breaks his toys without paying for it,” said Nick, arms crossed.

Thor was solemn. “That…seems to have been true. But he forgives. In my last interview….”

Maria interrupted him. “Actually, Loki, one of the things Sitwell was working on when he was killed was analyzing that last conversation with Odin and Thor, and he had a lot of questions you could not answer. For example, you said Odin had no attendants in the throne room when he spoke with you, but Odin never went anywhere without his Einjarher guards either with him or close by. Loki, can you shed any light on any of it?”

"Speak,” said Thor to his brother, “the time for all illusions is past.”

Loki just shook his head; whether in answer to Thor or to Maria, Darcy could not tell.

“But the point remains,” said Fury, advancing to Thor. “Here on earth we’re just pawns in your little intergalactic war, aren’t we?”

“Absolutely not,” replied Thor, “Earth is under my protection and Asgard keeps the nine realms from war. The Tesseract was safe upon earth until your Red Skull told Thanos about it, and then – without telling me all, I must admit – the Allfather sent me to retrieve it.”

“And what’s this about Mistress Death?” demanded Tony. “Yeah, I get that Thanos might not be so interested in Earth without an Infinity Gem, but it sounds like someone even bigger than him wants a war."

“I … I know not,” said Thor. “I know that Thanos is the servant and lover of Mistress Death, and his entire existence is dedicated to serving her. He is a nihilistic immortal of immense power, but he is subservient to her will.”

“And what’s her will, in regards to earth?” demanded Fury. “Why did Red Skull seek him out? If Thanos' quarrel with Earth is not over an Infinity Gem, why’s he looking for a war with us?”

“The quarrel is not with him,” replied Thor, frowning in concentration. “The quarrel is … with Death herself. She …prefers a steady harvest. She dislikes extinction; she receives too many lives, followed by too few. Your world is currently in its sixth great extinction, is it not? Even beyond the species you kill outright are you not acidifying your oceans with the carbon you spew into your atmosphere? And this is wholly the doing of your species, is it not?”

Nick finally broke the silence. “That’s why we thought that maybe we could use the Tesseract to develop a clean energy source. That’s something that earth badly needs.”

“But instead you were using it to develop weapons,” Loki replied suddenly. “Is this great extinction a concern only when you can put to it a face and a name?”

“Brother, I would have you keep your oath.”

“I am keeping it. Should you send one emissary of Death back to her, she will merely send another, as long as you persist upon your current course of conduct.”

The mortals looked at each other awkwardly.

“Then we need to get the Tesseract back from Asgard,” said Steve, “just as Red Skull predicted.”

“And we’d better take out Red Skull before that happens,” said Tony. “Not that we didn’t know this already, though. Looks like we’ve got another war on our hands, everyone. Maria, does anyplace in Seattle serve shwarma?”

“Not at this hour, Tony, this is the Pacific Northwest, remember? They roll up the streets at 6pm.”

“It’s not quite that bad,” said Darcy, “even when I lived here there were 24-hour restaurants. Not for schwarma, though, mostly Mexican and American. I vote for the 5 spot.”

As there were no dissenting opinions (for no-one else knew anything about all night Seattle restaurants) this was easily agreed to.

“Time for me to butt out,” said Rodey.

“Why?”

“Because, um, I have a job, Tony? That I took time out just to help you, maybe? And, you know, maybe I should get back to it?”

“O.K. O.K. Point taken,” and Tony gave Rodey a hug.

“Evening everyone,” said Rodey. “And, Loki, I’m pleased to meet you. Really I am. Maria, is this the way out?” After she nodded he left.

Then Loki stepped up to Clint (who hadn’t moved since Thor had brought come in with him, except to turn to face the screen) and said, quietly but distinctly, “Please join us.”

Clint finally detached himself from the wall he’d been leaning against and glowered. “I get that you were willing to screw Red Skull out of a war, and anybody’s better than him, but you could’ve trusted some of us a little more.”

“I did not know how else to get you and Erik alive out of the dark energy lab,” replied Loki, “I had not expected to find you there.”

“C’mon, am I supposed to believe that? You had no idea who we were.”

“Certainly I did,” answered Loki, “you and Erik were both kind to my brother while he was mortal.” Seeing Clint’s look of surprise, he added, “You told your master you were starting to root for him, I believe.”

At this point there was a knock on the door. “It’s damn near midnight in a war room in this town,” said Nick, “who the fuck?”

“It’s Bruce,” replied Maria, as she opened the door.

Bruce Banner staggered in, hair still wet, wearing only a pair of pants that looked as if they’d been fished out of a trashcan somewhere.

“Think I got ‘em,” he said, leaning against the doorframe as if he was exhausted. “Most of them, anyhow. Swam across Lake Union and walked the rest of the way.   Did you guys get in touch with Loki? Comm doesn’t last long on the Other Guy.”

Then as he looked around the room, he realized that Thor was smiling, and Loki was standing next to Clint, and he stared at them as if he’d never seen them before.

“Guys?” Bruce Banner asked. “Hey, did I miss anything?”

 


	17. Redux

After it turned out that there really and truly was no place in Seattle that offered shawarma after 10 pm, and very few places to eat out at all, they wound up just ordering in from the 5 Point, and eating on folding tables that Maria pulled out of a closet.

Most of the men had burgers, most of the women ordered salads, but Thor and Loki both chose the roasted rosemary chicken. While Loki poured water into a bowl Maria had produced in response to his request, and then fastidiously washed his hands in it, Thor simply tore off a leg of chicken and began gnawing. After Loki also began to eat with his hands, however, Darcy spoke.

“Hey, were you two raised by wolves?”

All the humans looked at her as if she’d just said the rudest thing possible, even Jane, but Loki smiled as if her words had evoked the most blissful of memories and said to Thor, “Tell me, how are Geri and Freki?”

“They do well, brother,” replied Thor, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, even though Maria had supplied everyone with paper towels and the 5 Point had included paper napkins in the order, “but they miss us both.  I know they miss you. They greet me as always, but then they look behind me to see if you are there as well.”

“In answer to your question, we were raised by wolves,” said Loki to Darcy, “the best of wolves.  Geri was a second mother to me; I cannot tell you how many times as a child I fell asleep in front of the fire, resting upon her warm flank.”

“And wise Freki taught me to hunt, along with Tyr and the Allfather,” added Thor.  “How I wish we could share this feast with them!  They would appreciate this chicken.  They were always hungry.”

“I believe Darcy was referring to the fact you aren’t using the plastic forks and knives that came with the meal,” said Jane, ruining everything as usual. 

“But the mortals eat with their hands,” objected Thor. “I have seen you. Those are just for greens, are they not?”  And truly only the women had picked up forks for their salads; the guys had all picked up their burgers.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Steve Rogers. “We need to focus on catching Schmidt.”

“We ought to be able to do that,” said Sam. “Sounds like we’ve got the best of SHIELD right here.  It shouldn’t be that hard to track him down.”

Loki gave his brother a pointed look. Thor, preoccupied with his chicken, took a while to notice, but eventually he did and said, “Use Loki’s scepter.”

“That might not be possible,” said Nick.

“No,” said Tony, “don’t tell me. You guys lost that? To Hydra? Tell me you’re kidding.”

Maria and Nick and Steve and and Clint all looked at each other, and then Steve said, “well, everything at SHIELD was on a need-to-know basis.  And if you didn’t need to know, you didn’t.  Am I right, director Fury?”

When Nick didn’t answer, Maria sighed. “Steve’s right. Everything in SHIELD involving the scepter was … classified.  And when SHIELD blew up, we lost control of its facilities.”

“So tell me, where was the last place you know of? Inquiring minds want to know.”

“Europe,” said Maria.  “Location classified.  Even I didn’t know where.”

“Oh that’s just peachy,” said Tony. “The most valuable thing we’ve got, and you guys lose it.”

“Although I try my best to keep Asgard’s promise to defend the nine realms,” said Loki to Thor, “it seems to me, brother, that these mortals of yours do not need enemies.”

“We’ll find it,” said Nick. 

“And when Nat does find it, which she will,” said Clint, “it’ll probably take all of us to bust it out.  You can count on Hydra to protect it with the best they’ve got. Loki, I take it you can’t tell us more about it?”

Loki shook his head.

“Then I guess we’re getting the band back together,” said Tony.

“What’s this I heard about your not wanted to join my super secret boy band?” asked Nick.

“I’ve changed my mind,” said Tony.

“For the better,” replied Thor. He hefted Mjolnir, and it crackled with life.

“Um, Thor, we just found out that Red Skull is back, Hydra’s not just ruined SHIELD, it’s stolen Loki’s scepter, and we’re all stuck down here because we can’t trust Asgard,” said Jane.  “I’m not sure I agree with you that our current situation is better.”

Loki looked at Thor, and said, “it is quite possible that you do not need enemies either, brother.”

“Don’t start that again.”

“I didn’t say anything about feathers, did I?”

“What are you two talking about?” demanded Jane.

“It is a long tale,” said Thor.

“One that my brother would prefer that the mortals never hear,” added Loki.  But Darcy noticed that despite Loki’s teasing and Jane’s bitching, both Norse brothers seemed very happy.  It occurred to her that if Loki had been living as an illusion (and he must have been) this was the first meal he had shared with anyone in a long time.

“Guys,” said Steve. “Seems to me that we can live without that tale a while longer.  If Loki thinks the scepter’s that important, maybe we should find it first, before we hunt down Schmidt.  And I agree with Barton – we can probably figure out on our own where Hydra’s hiding it. Meanwhile I want to apologize to you, Loki,” and here he stood, walked over to the folding table on which Thor and Loki had put their chicken, and held out his hand for the second time.  “You fought Red Skull on our behalf when you didn’t need to.”

Loki stood and this time, Darcy noticed, he returned the handshake. “Do not concern yourself, mortal. I did not do it for you; I did it for Thor, who never would have forgiven me the depredations this venomous Schmidt wished to inflict upon your world.”

“Had you not acted I never would have known, brother.” Thor stood.  “As Jane has foretold, I would have stood helpless with Heimdall upon the end of the bridge I had smashed and watched your world burn while I cursed my own folly.  It would have been far easier for you to have pretended to be so broken by Thanos that there was nothing you could do, Loki, than for you to have undergone all you have endured for Midgard’s sake and for my own.”

“Please don’t apologize again, brother; it does not become you.”

“When I sought your forgiveness in the mortals’ New Mexico I knew not why; I believe I know better now.  I have much to learn, but I intend to learn it….”

“On the contrary; no-one but you in the golden realm has ever…”

“Enough, brother.  When I told you your slights were imaginary I spoke falsely. They were anything but. I shall never doubt you, and ever shall I rue the day I did.  Henceforth we shall fight side by side,” and Thor reached out his big right hand and grasped Loki by the neck.

“And I sincerely hope you’ll fight with us, as well,” said Steve.  “I like to think that SHIELD kinda figured it out even before we saw the vid, but you were long gone by then.”

“We may have figured out that there was something more to Loki’s little war than met the eye,” said Fury, not moving, “but without anyone’s cooperation it was hard for us to do more than that. Loki, it’s not enough just to fight for earth.  You gotta talk to us as well.  We could’ve arranged for the Chitauri to invade a military base in the middle of nowhere instead of a city full of civilians.”

“Maybe not quite that,” said Maria, “if the Chitauri were never yours to control, but Fury’s right.  We appreciate all you’ve done, Loki, but we can work better with you if you stay in touch and let us know what’s going on.”

“And if you want to keep Thor out of the loop, just say so,” added Darcy.

“Am I hearing this from you?” demanded Jane.

“Though it pains me to agree, yet I deserve this,” added Thor.  “Do not hesitate to trust the mortals where you would not trust me.  I hope to earn your trust in the future, brother, but I understand if it is not yet mine.”

“What about Heimdall?” asked Bruce.

“Yeah,” added Tony.  “Didn’t he see all this and not say one word about any of it to Thor?”

“And isn’t he still watching?” demanded Sam.

“This room is protected, as best we are able,” said Fury, “but surely Heimdall saw Loki surrender and teleport here. Doesn’t he have to report that to Odin?”

“’Specially since Odin hates Thor worse than Loki,” said Jane.

Thor let his brother go, and both turned to stare at her.

“Because, let’s face it, that’s the truth, isn’t it? That’s why Odin let Thanos attack earth – so that Thor could watch it burn, knowing he couldn’t get here to do anything about it. Loki upset the plan so Odin let Thor go but once Odin discovers Thor’s learned the truth of the matter, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

“But what about that last interview with Odin?” demanded Darcy.  “You were afraid for Thor, I remember.  You told me in London that you’d committed treason and that Odin had told Asgard to go after Thor with everything they’d got and yet once Thor talked to Odin it was all good supersecret like.”

“This is true,” said Maria.  “SHIELD’s agents had a lot of trouble with that last interview between Odin and Thor. In the context of everything it doesn’t make any sense.”

“And all this depends on Heimdall telling Odin everything he saw,” added Bruce.  “And it sounds to me like there’s no telling whether we’re going to get the good Odin or the bad Odin once Thor gets back to Asgard.”

Thor turned to face the rest of the room. “I shall answer for Heimdall. I shall reproach him for not telling me what I now know has transpired, and swear him to secrecy unless the Allfather require him to speak of Loki upon his oath as gatekeeper. He has committed treason once for me; he may yet do so again.”

“Let’s not pick a fight with Asgard just yet,” said Nick.  “I think we’ve got enough on our plate as it is.”

“I was safely dead,” complained Loki.

“Maybe we do that again?” asked Jane. “It does seem the best way to keep Thor out of trouble with Odin.  Loki, what’s the best way to get you killed?”

“Want me to put an arrow through the other eye?” asked Clint.

“That won’t be necessary,” said Loki, “although since I suppose Heimdall saw me surrender and turn myself in, I doubt he will be surprised to notice that I am your prisoner.  I believe I can create a perpetual illusion of myself, although since it will have no substance it is best kept in solitary confinement, lest a chance contact with another reveal its lack of substance. It will scarcely surprise Heimdall to see me released to aid Thor in attacking your enemies.”

“Such as Red Skull,” said Nick. “But it’s more important to retrieve the scepter first.” 

Loki nodded.

“But how shall the mortals get in touch with you, brother?” asked Thor.

Loki produced two silver knives, each sheathed in black leather, which he handed to Nick Fury.  “Unsheath these and strike them against each other, and I shall appear. I recommend that you do so in a buried place, lest they conflict with the illusion I intend to provide.”

 “O.K., gimme a illusion of a prisoner to escort under armed guard to Seagate,” said Nick. “We’ll put you in solitary with a clear view of the sky.”

“Say hello to Hammer and Slattery for me,” said Tony. Everyone looked at him. “Just kidding,” he added.

“We’ll pull you out when we go after Red Skull,” said Steve to Loki, “and we’ll see to it he kills you.”

“But this shall all be false, will it not?” said Thor.

“I have done this before, brother.” Loki grinned.  “Trust me. It gets easier every time.”

“Huginn and Muginn?” said Darcy.

Loki’s grin widened.  “I have told you I was a favorite of Odin’s wolves; I was no less one of his ravens.  They shall tell the Allfather less than Heimdall, I warrant.”

“Brother,” said Thor, again reaching for Loki’s neck, “you were loved by all the creatures in Asgard capable of it.”

“Which sounds like precious few,” said Jane. “No surprise there.”

“And now, farewell,” said Loki; and though he continued to stand there, smiling at them, Thor’s mighty hand curled around nothing.

“Let’s see if this works,” said Fury, getting up. Although his hand went through the illusion just as Thor’s did, it followed him when he tried to pull it away, moving like an automaton.

“That’s really creepy,” Tony complained.

“And when your suits move without anyone in them, that isn’t?” asked Steve.

“Boys,” said Nick.

“He’s right, though,” added Maria, finishing her salad. “That thing is creepy. On to the next stage, everyone. We’ve got to get that scepter and then see what it’s good for.  I suspect that hunting down Red Skull will probably be the least of its capabilities.”

“I remember you saying something about a robot,” said Bruce to Tony.  “We should get on that. Sounds like it’s something we’ll need sooner rather than later.”

“We’ll let Fury here take Loki into custody,” said Tony, sketching air quotes around the name, “with maybe Clint for company because everyone knows how much they hate each other but it sounds like the rest of you need a lift to New York.  Anyone for the quinjet?”

And thus it was that when the Seattle Fire Department sought to investigate a suspicious fire in Laurelhurst, their subpoenas to Stark Seattle (based as they were on little more than a rumor that the Hulk was seen at the site) were met by polite stonewalling…….

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long hiatus. It was a combination of a new job, which took all of my brain cells, and technical difficulties complicated by a new iMac with Yosemite. I still can't post anything via Firefox, so I had to start up Safari to get anything up at all.
> 
> As for the story itself, it is Baldur, not Loki, who is beloved of all the animals and birds; but as the MCU Loki seems to be a combination of Baldur and Loki (in both the myths and the comics, Baldur is Thor's beloved, beautiful, difficult and doomed brother, while Loki wages war with Thor merely as an extension of his preexisting enmity with Odin) so I hope my readers are not too troubled by the fact that this Loki has some of the attributes of Baldur.
> 
> anyhow, the story is evolving, and if I can master the technical aspects of posting there should be more to come, so stay tuned everyone.


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